--"-^SfS^SbSS;^** 


<>»^»M»1«f  •»«»*«►., 


pan  prison  assooiation 

Semi-centennial,  1870-1920 


AMERICAN 
PRISON  ASSOCIATION 
SEMI-CENTENNiy^ 
1870-1920         3 

COUNTY  JAILS 

"IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  DECLARATION 
OF  PRINCIPLES  OF  1870" 


ILLUSTRATIVE  MONOGRAPHS 

I.  Quotations  from  Declaration  of  Principles  by  the  Con- 
gress of  1870  Applicable  to  the  County  Jail. 

II.  The    Abolition    of    the    County   Jail    by    Frederick 
Howard  Wines,  LL.D.,  191 1. 

III.  Report  of  Special  Committee  on  Jails  by  Charles  R. 

Henderson,  LL.D. 

IV.  Report  of  Special  Committee  on  Jails,  Lockups  and 

Police  Stations  by  H.  H.  Shirer,  1913. 

V.  Abstract  of  Report  of  Committee  on  Jails,  Lockups 
and  Police  Stations  by  John  L.  Whitman,  1914. 

VI.  Abstract  of  Report  of  Committee  on  Jails,  Lockups 
and  Police  Stations  by  William  T.  Cross,  191 5. 


New  York  City 
1920 


%. 


\ 


A 


/    ^ 


COUNTY  JAILS 

"IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  DECLARATION  OF 
PRINCIPLES  OF  1870" 

By  Hastings  H.  Hart,  LL.D. 

I  gladly  consented  to  discuss  county  jails  at  this  Semi-Cen- 
tennial  Meeting  because  I  believe  that  no  more  important  subject 
will  be  considered  here. 

The  prisoner  usually  has  his  first  experience  behind  the  bars  in 

a  jail,  and  that  is  the  time  of  greatest  opportunity  for  his  reclama- 

co    tion.    He  has  received  a  shock.    He  realizes  for  the  first  time  the 

cry      ,  . 

2    mevitable  consequences  of  his  reckless  course.    That  is  the  time 
when  the  sheriff,  the  jailer,  the  doctor,  the  psychiatrist,  the  social 
"^    worker,  and  the  Christian  teacher  should  unite  their  wisdom  and 
<    their  effort  for  his  redemption. 

^         Every  person  here  present  knows  the  difficulty  of  reclaiming 

those  who  have  become  fixed  in  criminal  habits.     This  is  espe- 

>t    cially  true  of  certain  forms  of  crime,  for  example,  theft  and  gamb- 

X  ^'ling.     The  hope  of  reforming  a  beginner  in  the  early  stages  of 

\    these  destructive  habits  is  ten  times  greater  than  that  of  reform- 

V?    ing  a  repeater. 

f        In  a  paper  read  before  this  Association  in   1907  I  said:    "I 

^    candidly  believe  that  we  have  reached  the  point  in  the  develop- 

Q    ment  of  prison  reform  where  the  National   Prison  Association 

Vjought  to  address  itself  systematically  and  faithfully,  for  a  series 

of  years,  to  the  reformation  of  the  county  jail  system."     This 

^    declaration  was  quoted  with  approval  by  the  Committee  on  Jails 

^_    in  their  report  of  1916. 

75  In  this  program  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  minutes  I  am  given 
five  minutes — one  twenty-fourth  of  the  allotted  time.  I  suspect 
that  this  assignment  represents  the  estimate  which  the  Associa- 
tion holds  of  the  relative  importance  of  this  subject. 

I  have  examined  the  26  volumes  of  Proceedings  from  1883  to 
1919.  They  contain  about  14,000  pages.  Of  these,  about  170 
pages — a  little  over  i  per  cent. — are  devoted  directly  to  the  sub- 

3 


248849 


ject  of  county  and  municipal  jails.  In  the  nine  years  from  li 
to  1897  I  can  find  only  one  page  of  direct  discussion  of  jails.  It  is 
true  that  the  subject  of  county  jails  is  referred  to  incidentally  in 
reports  on  prison  discipline  and  in  numerous  papers  and  addresses, 
but  these  170  pages  are  all  that  I  can  find  dealing  directly  with 
the  subject. 

Jail  papers  were  presented  by  Dr.  Frederick  Howard  Wines 
in  1877;  General  R.  BrinkerhofT,  1884;  Mr.  Eugene  Smith,  1885; 
Mr.  E.  A.  Meredith,  1887;  Mr.  Joseph  P.  Byers,  1898;  Pro- 
fessor W.  F.  Blackmar,  1901 ;  Mr.  Alexander  Johnson,  1906; 
and  Mr.  W.  Almont  Gates,  1909 — all  of  which  have  permanent 
value.  Dr.  Wines  pursued  this  subject  from  1863  until  1912. 
Almost  his  last  utterance  was  his  splendid  appeal,  at  the  Boston 
Conference  of  Social  Work,  for  the  abolition  of  the  jail  system. 
But  these  notable  efforts,  as  I  have  indicated,  have  represented 
only  a  little  fragment  of  the  great  mass  of  discussion  in  this 
Association. 

The  United  States  Census  Bureau  has  treated  this  subject  with 
the  same  scrupulous  economy  which  has  prevailed  in  this  Associa- 
tion. In  the  Census  Volume  on  Prisoners  and  Juvenile  Delin- 
quents, 1890,  prisoners  awaiting  trial  were  included,  but  in  1900 
and  1910  only  sentenced  prisoners  were  included,  and  those  await- 
ing trial  were  entirely  left  out  of  account.  Surely  the  American 
people  ought  to  be  interested  in  the  question  of  how  many  prison- 
ers awaiting  trial,  witnesses,  insane  people,  and  young  children 
were  confined  in  the  jails  of  this  country,  but  that  information  is 
entirely  lacking. 

In  1906  a  committee  was  appointed  to  "investigate  the  char- 
acter, methods,  and  influence  of  the  county  jail  system  of  the 
United  States,"  with  Dr.  Charles  R.  Henderson  as  chairman. 
This  committee  made  an  elaborate  study  of  the  entire  jail  system 
and  accumulated  a  very  large  amount  of  valuable  material.  Dr. 
Henderson  presented  a  summary  of  20  pages  which  was  published 
in  the  PrcKcedings  of  1907,  but  the  general  report  was  never  pub- 
lished and  its  invaluable  material  was  lost  to  the  world. 

In  1909  a  resolution  was  adopted  for  the  appointment  of  a 
special  committee  on  jails,  of  which  Superintendent  Leonard,  of 
the  Ohio  State  Reformatory,  was  chairman.  This  committee  was 
renewed  from  year  to  year.  The  special  committees  on  jails  sub- 
milted   three  excellent  reports:    one  in   1913  by  H.  H.  Shirer, 


chairman;  one  in  1914  by  John  L.  Whitman,  chairman;  and  one 
in  1915  by  W.  T.  Cross,  chairman. 

In  1916  the  special  committee  on  jails  was  not  renewed,  and  I 
find  no  mention  of  jails  in  the  indexes  of  the  annual  Proceedings 
since  1915. 

In  preparation  for  this  paper  I  sent  a  questionnaire  to  more 
than  50  students  of  the  prison  question.  I  asked  them  to  give  me, 
in  50  words,  their  idea  of  what  a  jail  should  be,  and  then  I  asked 
them  to  mention  five  jails  which  reasonably  met  the  standards 
thus  prescribed.  One  man  only,  Dr.  Emory  T.  Lyon,  of  Chicago, 
was  able  to  mention  three  "which  approximate  the  better  stan- 
dards in  most  respects."  Not  one  of  these,  however,  was  located 
in  Dr.  Lyon's  state  of  Illinois. 

All  these  correspondents  agreed  that  the  use  of  the  county  jails 
should  be  restricted  to  prisoners  awaiting  trial ;  but  outside  of  the 
states  of  Indiana,  South  Carolina,  North  Carolina,  and  Alabama, 
only  a  few  jails  conform  to  this  rational  and  necessary  standard. 
I  asked  each  correspondent  to  state  what  improvement  had  been 
made  in  the  jail  system  of  his  state  within  the  past  ten  years. 
With  one  accord  they  described  improved  lighting,  heating,  feed- 
ing, cleanliness,  and  kindly  treatment,  but  not  one  of  them  indi- 
cated any  intelligent  movement  for  reformatory  dealings  with 
prisoners  awaiting  trial  beyond  occasional  religious  services. 

Men  and  women  of  the  American  Prison  Association,  I  charge 
you  with  fifty  years'  neglect  of  the  most  hopeful  and  most  deserv- 
ing part  of  the  prison  population.  I  beg  you  to  repent  and,  from 
this  day  forward,  to  attack  the  jail  problem  with  the  same  interest 
and  intelligence  whereby  such  great  results  have  been  accom- 
plished in  the  reformation  of  convict  prisons  and  the  develop- 
ment of  the  modern  adult  and  juvenile  reformatory  system. 

I  suggest  that,  from  this  day  forward,  there  be  a  standing  Com- 
mittee on  Jails,  Lockups,  and  Municipal  Prisons,  and  that  the 
first  undertaking  of  this  committee  be  to  elaborate  a  definite  pro- 
gram for  the  reformation  of  the  county  jail. 

Such  a  program  might  include  such  features  as  the  following: 

I.  The  organization,  in  every  county,  of  a  county  jail  commit- 
tee, including  a  lawyer,  an  educator,  a  business  man,  a  representa- 
tive of  the  labor  union,  a  Protestant  clergyman,  a  Roman  Catholic 
clergyman,  and  two  women,  the  duty  of  this  committee  to  be  to 
provide  for  the  case  study  of  each  prisoner  committed  to  the 


county  jail,  and  to  secure  in  behalf  of  each  prisoner  who  is  not 
a  confirmed  criminal  such  wise  and  friendly  influences  as  shall 
tend  to  restore  him  to  good  citizenship. 

2.  The  elimination  of  the  political  control  of  county  jails.  This 
might  be  done  by  making  them  state  institutions,  administered  by 
a  state  board,  by  relieving  the  county  sheriff  of  responsibility  for 
their  administration,  by  the  selection  of  jail  officers  under  Civil 
Service  rules,  solely  on  the  ground  of  fitness,  and  by  establishing 
schools  for  their  training. 

3.  The  exclusion  of  all  sentenced  prisoners,  insane  patients,  and 
children  from  county  jails,  and  committing  misdemeanants  to 
state  farms,  or  district  farms  under  state  control,  with  reforma- 
tory discipline. 

4.  The  making  of  public  provision  for  physical  and  psychologi- 
cal examinations,  and  medical,  surgical,  and  psychiatric  treatment 
of  prisoners. 

5.  Public  provision  for  thorough  case  study  of  the  personal, 
family,  and  criminal  history  of  each  person  committed  to  the 
county  jail  as  the  basis  for  the  reformatory  work  of  the  county 
jail  committee  and  the  public  officers. 

6.  Provision  of  opportunity  for  outside  employment,  on  the 
plans  now  pursued  at  Montpelier,  Vermont,  Dayton,  Ohio,  and 
Wilmington,  Delaware,  for  such  prisoners  awaiting  trial  as  may 
safely  be  permitted  so  to  work. 

7.  Securing  honorable  employment  for  discharged  prisoners. 

8.  Development  of  a  better  type  of  jail  architecture,  adapting 
it  for  these  reformatory  purposes. 

I  submit  herewith  the  address  of  Dr.  Frederick  Howard  Wines, 
at  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Corrections  of  191 1, 
on  "The  Abolition  of  the  County  Jail,"  together  with  the  report 
of  the  special  Jail  Committee  of  1907,  prepared  by  Dr.  Charles  R, 
Henderson,  and  abstracts  of  the  reports  of  the  special  Jail  Com- 
mittees of  1913,  1914,  and  1915. 


I 

DECLARATION  OF  PRINCIPLES  BY  THE  CONGRESS 

OF  1870 

QUOTATIONS  APPLICABLE  TO  THE  COUNTY  JAIL 

II.  The  treatment  of  criminals  by  society  is  for  the  protection 
of  society.  But  since  such  treatment  is  directed  to  the  criminal 
rather  than  to  the  crime,  its  great  object  should  be  his  moral 
regeneration.  Hence  the  supreme  aim  of  prison  discipline  is  the 
reformation  of  criminals,  not  the  infliction  of  vindictive  suffering. 

VI.  The  two  master  forces  opposed  to  the  reform  of  the  prison 
systems  of  our  several  states  are  political  appointments,  and  a  con- 
sequent instability  of  administration.  Lentil  both  are  eliminated, 
the  needed  reforms  are  impossible. 

VII.  Special  training,  as  well  as  high  qualities  of  head  and  heart, 
is  required  to  make  a  good  prison  or  reformatory  officer.  Then 
only  will  the  administration  of  public  punishment  become 
scientific,  uniform,  and  successful,  when  it  is  raised  to  the  dignity 
of  a  profession,  and  men  are  especially  trained  for  it,  as  they  are 
for  other  pursuits. 

XI .  In  order  to  effect  the  reformation  of  imprisoned  criminals,  there 
must  he  not  only  a  sincere  desire  and  intention  to  that  end,  but 
a  serious  conviction,  in  the  minds  of  the  prison  officers,  that  they  are 
capable  of  being  reformed,  since  no  man  can  heartily  maintain  a 
discipline  at  war  with  his  inward  beliefs;  no  man  can  earnestly 
strive  to  accomplish  what  in  his  heart  hedespairsof  accomplishing. 

XII.  A  system  of  prison  discipline,  to  be  truly  reformatory, 
must  gain  the  will  of  the  convict.  He  is  to  be  amended;  but 
how  is  this  possible  with  his  mind  in  a  state  of  hostility?  No 
system  can  hope  to  succeed  which  does  not  secure  this  harmony 
of  wills,  so  that  the  prisoner  shall  choose  for  himself  what  his 
officer  chooses  for  him.     .     .     . 

XIV.  The  prisoner's  self-respect  should  he  cultivated  to  the  utmost, 
and  every  effort  made  to  give  hack  to  him  his  manhood.  There  is 
no  greater  mistake  in  the  whole  compass  of  penal  discipline  than 
its  studied  imposition  of  degradation  as  a  part  of  punishment. 
Such  imposition  destroys  every  better  impulse  and  aspiration. 


8 

XX.  It  is  the  judgment  of  this  congress  that  repeated  short 
sentences  for  minor  criminals  are  worse  than  useless;  that,  in  fact ^ 
they  rather  stimulate  than  repress  transgression. 

XXII.  More  systematic  and  comprehensive  methods  should  he 
adopted  to  save  discharged  prisoners  by  providing  them  with  work 
and  e7icouraging  them  to  redeem  their  character  and  regain  their  lost 
position  in  society. 

XXXI.  The  construction,  organization,  and  majiagement  of  all 
prisons  should  he  hy  the  state,  and  they  should  form  a  graduated 
series  of  reformatory  establishments.     .     .     . 

XXXII.  As  a  general  rule,  the  maintejiance  of  penal  institu- 
tions, above  the  county  jail,  should  he  from  the  earnings  of  their 
inmates,  and  without  cost  to  the  state. 

XXXIII.  A  right  application  of  the  principles  of  sanitary 
science  in  the  construction  and  arrangements  of  prisons  is  a  point 
of  vital  importance.  The  apparatus  for  heating  and  ventilation 
should  be  the  best  that  is  known;  sunlight,  air,  and  water  should  be 
afforded  according  to  the  abundance  with  which  nature  has  provided 
them;  the  rations  and  clothing  should  be  plain  hut  wholesome,  com- 
fortable, and  in  sufficient  but  not  extravagant  quantity;  the  bed- 
steads, bed,  and  bedding,  including  sheets  and  pillow-cases,  not 
costly  hut  decent,  and  kept  clean,  well  aired,  and  free  from  vermin; 
the  hospital  accommodations ,  medical  stores,  and  surgical  instru- 
ments should  he  all  that  humanity  requires  and  science  can  supply; 
and  all  needed  means  for  personal  cleanliness  should  he  without 
stint. 

XXXVI.  As  a  principle  that  crowns  all,  and  is  essential  to  all, 
it  is  our  conviction  that  no  prison  system  can  be  perfect,  or  even 
successful  to  the  most  desirable  degree,  without  some  central 
authority  to  sit  at  the  helm,  guiding,  controlling,  unifying,  and 
vitalizing  the  whole.  We  ardently  hope  yet  to  see  all  the  depart- 
ments of  our  preventive,  reformatory,  and  pejial  institutions  in  each 
state  moulded  into  one  harmonious  and  effective  system;  its  parts 
mutually  answering  to  and  supporting  each  other;  and  the  whole 
animated  by  the  same  spirit,  aiming  at  the  same  subjects,  and 
subject  to  the  same  control;  yet  without  loss  of  the  advantages 
of  voluntary  aid  and  effort,  wherever  they  are  attainable. 


II 

THE  ABOLITION  OF  THE  COUNTY  JAIL 

An  Address  by  Frederick  Howard  Wines,  LL.D. 

At  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Corrections,  Boston,  191 1 

Of  all  the  reforms  included  under  the  general  title  of  prison 
reform  in  the  United  States,  none  is  so  urgent  as  the  overthrow  of 
our  existing  system  of  dealing  with  misdemeanants.  We  have 
made  substantial  progress  in  the  reconstruction  of  our  peniten- 
tiary system.  But  are  you  aware  that  in  each  year  the  number  of 
commitments  to  prison  for  terms  not  exceeding  one  year  is  four 
times  as  great  as  that  for  any  longer  period?  In  other  words, 
even  though  all  our  prisons,  great  and  small,  were  reformatory  in 
their  aim  and  influence,  the  major  prisons  would  reach  and  touch 
only  one-fourth  of  the  criminal  and  quasi-criminal  population  in 
custody  of  the  law.  Three-fourths  of  those  in  custody  are,  in 
fact,  held  in  institutions,  the  practical  effect  of  which  is  to  train 
an  unascertained  percentage  of  their  inmates  for  the  penitentiary. 

When,  a  few  months  since,  that  distinguished  group  of  foreign 
criminologists  and  experts  in  prison  administration  in  attendance 
upon  the  sessions  of  the  international  prison  congress  in  Wash- 
ington accepted  the  hospitality  of  the  government  and  made  a 
hurried  tour  of  inspection  of  some  of  our  leading  and  typical  penal 
institutions,  they  were  good  enough  to  express  their  admiration 
of  our  reformatories,  both  for  children  and  adults,  but  they  could 
with  difficulty  find  language  at  once  sufficiently  severe  and  de- 
cently diplomatic  with  which  to  voice  the  amazement  and  horror 
awakened  in  them  by  a  casual  glance  at  the  municipal  and  county 
prisons  of  this  great  republic.  And  when  they  spoke  to  us  about 
it,  they  seemed  to  think  they  were  telling  us  what  we  did  not 
know. 

On  the  contrary,  there  is  not  an  habitual  visitor  to  our  county 
jails,  official  or  philanthropic,  who  is  not  alive  to  the  evil  condi- 
tions that  prevail  in  most  of  them.  In  any  library  that  makes  a 
specialty  of  collecting  public  documents  I  could  show  you  scores 
or  hundreds  of  reports  in  which  attention  is  called  not  only  to  the 
generally  unsatisfactory  state  of  these  minor  prisons,  but  to  the 
peculiarly  repulsive  and  dangerous  conditions  existing  in  some  of 


10 

them.  Certainly  all  are  not  equally  bad.  It  is  no  part  of  my  pur- 
pose to  indulge  in  exaggeration  for  the  sake  of  exciting  a  momen- 
tary sensation,  or  to  represent  as  typical  what  is  really  excep- 
tional. But  the  best  jail  that  was  ever  built,  although  the  physical 
treatment  accorded  to  its  unfortunate  inmates  may  be  perfectly 
humane  and  just,  fails  to  subserve  any  of  the  ends  of  a  prison 
except  that  of  confinement.  There  is  in  it  no  organized,  intelli- 
gent, thorough  effort  to  reclaim  the  men  and  women  committed 
to  it.  Such  effort  as  may  be  made,  in  certain  prisons,  is  apt  to  be 
sporadic,  spasmodic,  and  it  is  ordinarily  neutralized  by  the  con- 
tamination of  unrestricted  communication  and  mutual  inter- 
course between  prisoners. 

The  number  of  what  may  be  called  good  jails  is  relatively  small. 
Most  of  them  are  unsanitary,  owing  to  their  location  or  to  their 
architectural  construction.  Many  of  them  are  overcrowded,  al- 
most to  suffocation.  They  are  often  horribly  filthy.  They  are 
centers  of  tuberculous  and  syphilitic  contagion. 

Wheie  one  finds  filth  one  is  apt  to  find  disease  and  immorality. 
The  moral  atmosphere  of  the  average  county  prison  is  even  more 
foul  than  the  physical  odors  that  often  assail  the  nostrils  of  the 
visitor  with  nauseating  effect.  The  associations,  the  language, 
the  practices  in  vogue  are  vile  beyond  description.  The  inmates 
are  corrupted  by  compulsory  association  in  enforced  idleness. 
The  worst  of  these  prisons  are  cesspools  of  moral  contagion,  prop- 
agating houses  of  criminality,  factories  of  crime,  feeders  for  the 
penitentiary,  public  nuisances,  the  disgrace  of  modern  civilization. 

And  yet  all  the  effort  put  forth  to  change  these  conditions  for 
the  better  has  thus  far  proved  almost  wholly  unavailing. 

Why  this  indifference,  this  inertia,  this  immobility?  Doubtless 
it  is  partly  attributable  to  ignorance.  The  county  officials  do  not 
know  what  a  jail  should  be,  and  the  people  do  not  know  what 
their  jails  really  are.  The  evil  effects  are  scattered  over  an  im- 
mense territory,  and  they  are  subdivided  until  the  aggregate 
amount  is  hidden  from  sight  in  an  almost  endless  mass  of  details. 
But  in  plain  Anglo-Saxon,  the  truth  is  that  wherever  there  exist 
local  graft  and  political  dishonesty,  the  county  prison  is  its  center 
aiul  its  stronghold.  The  sheriff  or  the  jailer  makes  a  personal 
[Molit  from  crime  by  charging  a  per  diem  for  board  for  prisoners, 
anfl  by  the  receipt  of  fees  for  locking  and  unlocking  the  jail  doors. 
That  profit  is  a  li\('  wire;   no  local  politician,  possibly  no  member 


11 

of  the  legislature,  or  even  of  the  state  administration,  dares 
monkey  with  it. 

Instead,  therefore,  of  laying  the  axe  to  the  root  of  the  tree, 
would-be  reformers  resort  to  compromise  measures,  and  under- 
take to  "improve"  the  jails,  or,  as  the  Illinois  Charities  commis- 
sion phrases  it,  to  "standardize"  them.  Ladies  and  gentlemen, 
there  can  be  and  will  be  no  material  improvement  in  these  estab- 
lishments, so  long  as  they  continue  to  be  regarded  as  local  insti- 
tutions and  remain  subject  to  local  control.  Strange,  is  it  not, 
that  the  smaller  communities  should  be  so  anxious,  as  they  often 
are,  to  unload  the  burden  of  their  poor,  their  sick,  their  insane, 
their  helpless  and  forlorn,  of  all  ages,  upon  the  shoulders  of  the 
commonwealth,  where  it  does  not  belong,  but  fight  to  retain  that 
of  their  criminals,  which  by  right  the  state  alone  should  bear. 

This  is,  in  my  judgment,  the  secret  of  our  failure  and  defeat. 
We  have  substantially  won  the  fight  for  the  reformatory  prison 
and  the  indeterminate  sentence,  because  we  concentrated  our  fire 
upon  a  vulnerable  point  and  made  every  shot  tell.  We  made  use 
of  siege  guns  and  loaded  them  with  shell.  In  attacking  the  county 
jail  system,  we  have  pursued  the  opposite  policy:  we  have  scat- 
tered our  fire  and  placed  our  reliance  upon  buckshot.  We  have 
addressed  our  arguments  and  remonstrances  to  the  county  au- 
thorities, of  whom  there  are,  in  round  numbers,  twenty-five  hun- 
dred sets,  instead  of  to  the  legislative  bodies,  of  which  there  are 
less  than  fifty.  We  have  pleaded  for  new  jails,  better  jails,  when 
we  should  have  insisted  upon  their  replacement  by  prisons  owned 
and  controlled  by  the  state,  thus  emancipating  them  from  local 
political  control,  with  its  petty  and  selfish  interests. 

There  was  a  time  when  local  control  was  necessary  and  proper, 
but  that  was  long  ago.  Today  the  county  prison  is  an  anachron- 
ism. We  imported  it,  with  other  British  institutions,  from  Eng- 
land, the  mother  country.  But  conservative  England  has  out- 
grown it,  and  dates  the  dawn  of  her  regenerated  prison  system 
from  the  year  of  its  abolition.  We  still  lag  behind  in  the  march  of 
modern  civilization. 

The  Washington  international  prison  congress  awakened  much 
dormant  interest  in  all  phases  of  the  prison  question  throughout 
the  world,  but  especially  in  the  United  States.  We  succeeded  in 
the  attempt  to  modify  the  mental  attitude  of  Europe  toward  our 


12 

reformatory  system  in  its  application  to  felons.  Five  years  from 
now  we  shall  meet  our  European  friends  in  London  to  renew  this 
great  debate.  Meanwhile  they  point  to  us  with  polite  scorn,  and 
tell  us  that,  until  we  change  our  method  of  treatment  of  mis- 
demeanants, we  have  no  right  to  arrogate  to  ourselves  the  posi- 
tion of  leaders  in  the  great  work  of  prison  reform.  The  best 
answer  to  this  taunt  is  to  give  heed  to  it,  with  ready  recognition 
of  the  friendly  intent  of  their  warning  and  admonition.  "Let 
the  righteous  reprove  me;  it  shall  be  an  excellent  oil,  that  will 
not  break  my  head."  We  thank  them  for  it,  and  trust  that  it 
may  do  us  good.  Is  not  this  the  opportune  moment  for  efTecting 
a  complete  change  of  base,  for  the  adoption  of  a  new  plan  of 
campaign,  and  for  the  inauguration  of  an  evolutionary  or,  if  you 
please,  a  revolutionary  program? 

The  relative  importance  of  this  burning  question  rests  not  alone 
upon  the  numerical  preponderance  of  misdemeanants  in  our 
prisons,  but  upon  the  more  favorable  prospect  of  a  reduction  in 
the  volume  of  crime,  through  the  wise  and  skilful  application  to 
them  of  a  reformatory  prison  discipline,  than  is  to  be  anticipated 
from  the  attempt  to  reform  more  hardened  and  daring  culprits. 
Let  me  give  you  a  modern,  sociological  version  of  that  hackneyed 
quotation  from  Juvenal,  Maxima  debetur  puero  reverentia.  "In 
prison  discipline,  the  misdemeanant,  not  the  felon,  should  be  our 
first  and  chief  concern." 

Mine  is  a  poor,  weak  voice:  it  will  not  carry  very  far.  This 
right  arm  is  not  the  arm  of  a  giant,  nor  even  of  an  athlete:  it 
will  not  deliver  a  smashing  blow.  For  the  sake  of  the  human 
derelicts  languishing  in  merited  or  unmerited  confinement,  I  could 
wish  that  both  were  stronger.  Still  more  earnestly  do  I  wish  it 
for  the  sake  of  our  common  country  and  its  honor.  An  old  man 
suffers  in  many  ways  that  a  young  man  hardly  understands.  One 
of  my  secret  griefs  is  the  shame  I  feel  that  my  country  has  so 
long  tolerated,  and  continues  to  tolerate,  a  wrong  which  disgraces 
it  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  which,  unless  it  is  redressed,  must 
sooner  or  later  bring  down  upon  it  the  vengeance  of  Almighty 
God. 


13 


III 

REPORT  OF  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE  ON  JAILS 

By  Charles  R.  Henderson,  D.D.,  Chairman 

Chicago,  1907 

In  accordance  with  the  terms  of  this  resolution,  your  commit- 
tee has  faithfully  labored,  during  the  year,  to  collect,  tabulate 
and  consider  all  procurable  facts  and  competent  judgments  on 
the  subject.  In  this  investigation  we  have  been  materially  aided 
by  Superintendent  Whittaker,  of  Indiana,  who  printed  the 
schedules,  and  by  Charities  and  The  Commons,  whose  vigorous 
agent,  Mr.  L.  G.  Palmer,  selected  a  list  of  reliable  visitors  and 
sent  out  the  schedules.  Most  of  the  visitors  have  been  intelligent 
and  careful  in  their  inspections  and  reports,  and  we  are  greatly 
indebted  to  them  and  would  be  glad  to  recognize  them  publicly 
and  by  name,  if  permitted. 

The  scope  of  the  investigation  was  determined  by  the  resolu- 
tion creating  the  committee;  we  were  to  report  (i)  upon  the 
actual  conditions  of  county  jails  and  workhouses  in  the  United 
States,  and  (2)  to  offer  recommendations  for  improvement. 

The  schedules  used  were  based  on  forms  successfully  em- 
ployed by  the  authorities  of  Indiana  in  a  similar  inquiry  into  con- 
ditions in  that  State.  There  are  over  forty  questions  in  this 
schedule,  calling  for  detailed  information  on  all  aspects  of  jail 
conditions. 

The  results  were  carefully  tabulated  under  the  following 
heads:  (i)  Security  of  the  jail  as  a  place  of  restraint;  (2) 
conditions  affecting  the  health  of  prisoners,  as  of  food,  under- 
clothing, beds  and  bedding,  cleanliness  of  building,  ventilation, 
heating,  light,  water,  sewage,  bathing,  exercise,  recreation,  medi- 
cal care,  crowding;     (3)   occupation  and    idleness  of   prisoners; 

(4)  personal  contact  and  influence  of  inmates  on  each  other; 
provision  for  separation  and  classification  by  sex,  age,  character; 
witnesses,  debtors,  tramps,  abnormal  persons,  children,  youth; 

(5)  educational  and  religious  influences;  (6)  administration — 
fees  for  feeding,  receiving  and  discharging  prisoners;  (7)  dis- 
cipline— rules  of  conduct  and  measures  of  control;  (8)  popula- 
tion of  jail  and  its  classification. 


14 

We  have  also  collected  and  made  abstracts  of  the  laws  of  all 
states  relating  to  jails.  We  have  gathered  over  289  schedules 
from  37  states  and  territories,  including  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia. Every  geographical  division  is  fully  represented  in  this 
collection,  and  from  some  states  a  large  number  of  counties  have 
reported.  We  have  materials  for  a  picture  of  the  conditions  in 
city,  town,  village  and  wholly  rural  jails,  east  and  west,  north 
and  south.  The  reports  are  intelligent,  impartial  and  honest, 
and  the  information  is  as  exact  as  can  be  obtained  without  per- 
sonal inspection  by  trained  experts.  In  several  cases  the  inves- 
tigation is  reported  by  trained  experts.  We  may  regard  the  tes- 
timony as  substantially  correct  and  reliable. 

Of  course  only  government  statistics  could  pretend  to  be 
complete  for  the  whole  country;  but  our  intensive  study  of  fewer 
institutions  gives  a  more  definite  and  searching  picture  of  the 
facts  than  the  government  census  itself.  They  should  be  studied 
together. 

In  addition  to  the  other  facts  furnished  by  the  reports  on 
schedules,  the  committee  has  studied  former  discussions  of  the 
National  Prison  Association,  reports  of  State  officials  and  boards, 
and  studies  of  various  intelligent  investigators.  It  will  be  im- 
possible to  present  all  the  facts  and  opinions  considered,  and  we 
must  select  some  of  the  most  significant  materials  bearing  upon 
the  recommendations  which  we  offer  for  further  discussion. 


CONDITIONS  OF    COUNTY    JAILS    IN    THE    UNITED 

STATES 

The  tables  themselves  cannot  be  reproduced  in  this  report,  on 
account  of  space  and  cost  involved;  but  the  summarized  results 
of  a  study  of  all  the  materials,  with  minute  accounts  of  particu- 
lar typical  jails,  will  not  give  a  false  impression. 

When  it  is  possible  to  give  a  really  statistical  form  of  the 
data,  we  shall  do  so. 

1.   Conditions  of  Security 
The  primary  purpose  of  a  jail,  according  to  general  practice, 
is  to  retain  arrested  persons,  and,  in  the  case  of  convicted  misde- 
meanants, to  punish  them  by  a  period  of  restraint  of  liberty — es- 
pecially if  they  are  too  poor  to  pay  a  fine. 


I 


4 


15 

A  few  jails  are  reported  to  be  too  badly  constructed  to  hold 
dangerous  criminals;  but,  apparently,  nearly  all  are  secure  or 
contain  steel  cages  for  special  cases.  There  does  not  seem  to  be 
pressing  need  of  attention  and  reform  in  this  matter. 

If  the  only  or  chief  purpose  of  jails  were  to  keep  wild  beasts 
in  cages,  most  of  them  are  well  enough  adapted  to  this  purpose. 

II.  Conditions  of  Health 

Your  committee  has  a  very  large  mass  of  reliable  infor- 
mation in  respect  to  the  physical  conditions  affecting  the  health 
of  the  inmates  and  the  public.  Recent  discoveries  have  more 
clearly  revealed  the  fact  that  communicable  diseases  cultivated  in 
jails  are  a  menace  to  the  public.  John  Howard,  with  very  in- 
ferior scientific  knowledge,  tried  to  make  England  realize  this 
point  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  neglect  of  it  has  been  the 
responsible  cause  of  thousands  of  deaths — of  sheriffs,  jailers, 
judges  and  honest  work  people.  Even  if  the  unconvicted  pris- 
oners, many  innocent  of  crime,  could  be  disregarded,  public  in- 
terest in  the  hygienic  conditions  of  jails  is  involved. 

I.  Food. — The  majority  of  investigators  seem  to  be  satis- 
fied with  the  food  furnished  the  prisoners,  and  few  express  dis- 
satisfaction with  quality,  quantity  or  mode  of  serving. 

But  they  furnish  dietaries  which  compel  your  committee  to 
believe  that  the  food  usually,  or  at  least  often,  supplied,  is  by 
no  means  up  to  a  modern  standard,  is  not  a  "balanced  ration," 
containing,  in  proper  proportions,  the  elements  necessary  for  the 
human  body.  The  dietaries  often  reveal  an  excess  of  stimulant, 
in  coffee,  too  little  milk  and  cereals,  too  much  meat.  It  is  not  un- 
usual to  read  that  idle  prisoners  are  fed  meat  two  or  even  three 
times  a  day. 

This  whole  matter  should  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  medical 
commission  in  each  State,  with  power  to  fix  a  standard  diet, 
adapted  to  the  climate,  the  season,  the  activity,  the  age  and  the 
sex  of  prisoners.  Speaking  with  all  due  respect  of  county  of- 
ficials we  affirm,  upon  our  evidence,  that  they  are  not  usually 
competent  persons  to  draw  up  a  dietary  for  prisoners  of  any  kind. 

And  as  to  the  customary  mode  of  serving  food,  we  can  use  no 
milder  phrase  than  that  it  is  revolting  and  demoralizing  and 
often  dangerous  to  health.  It  would  seem  that  the  average 
county  authorities  think   that  anything  is  good  enough  for  a 


16 

prisoner,  and  that  the  word  "prisoner"  practically  means  a  con- 
demned criminal. 

We  have  grave  doubts  about  the  wisdom  of  permitting  friends 
of  prisoners  to  bring  them  food.  It  is  difificult  to  prevent  the 
surreptitious  introduction  of  tools  for  escape  and  even  weapons 
of  assault  in  the  food. 

All  the  hygienic  rules  of  a  well-ordered  establishment  are  dis- 
turbed by  this  permission;  discipline  is  made  more  difficult,  be- 
cause of  the  partiality  shown  favored  persons.  The  State  should 
furnish  suitable  food  to  each  prisoner  and  no  outside  interference 
should  be  permitted.  Differences  of  food  may  properly  be  made 
with  various  classes  of  prisoners — as  persons  waiting  trial,  con- 
victed misdemeanants,  prisoners  under  disciplinary  punishment, 
children  and  women.  It  is  scandalous  when  a  sherifif  or  his 
friends  are  permitted  to  make  money  by  trading  with  prisoners. 

Our  conclusion  is  that  food  is  generally  sufficient,  sometimes 
excessive  in  quantity;  but  that  in  variety,  balance  of  elements  of 
nutrition,  and  mode  of  serving,  serious  reforms  and  State  central 
control  are  much  needed. 

2.  Clothing,  and  Especially  Underclothing. — The  supposed 
brevity  of  term  in  a  county  jail  and  the  fact  that  many  inmates 
are  simply  in  temporary  detention,  awaiting  trial,  are  factors  in- 
fluencing public  care  for  clothing.  The  jail  differs,  in  these  re- 
spects, from  a  State  convict  prison  or  reformatory. 

In  jails  (as  distinguished  from  local  houses  of  correction, 
workhouses  and  penitentiaries)  there  is  no  thought  of  uniforms. 
The  prisoner  wears  his  own  outer  clothing  as  a  matter  of  course, 
unless  it  is  absolutely  too  tattered  and  filthy  even  for  the  society 
of  a  jail. 

The  questions  which  called  for  data  relating  to  clothing 
were:  "Underclothing  changed  how  often?"  and  "Does  county 
furnish  underclothing?"  The  general  rule  seems  to  be  that 
underclothing  is  changed  once  a  week. 

The  custom  of  supplying  or  not  supplying  underclothes  dif- 
fers not  only  from  State  to  State,  but  from  county  to  county  in 
the  same  State.  We  think  it  would  be  approximately  correct  to 
say  that  usually  the  county  authorizes  giving  underclothing 
when  it  is  imperatively  required  for  health  and  decency,  and 
that  the  prisoner  is  recjuired  to  furnish  his  own  underclothing 
when  he  is  ai)le  to  do  so. 


17 

Naturally  the  authorities  vary  considerably  in  their  judgment 
of  what  is  necessary  and  in  their  generosity  to  poor  prisoners. 

Only  central  State  regulation,  supervision  and  control  could 
secure  reasonable  and  uniform  treatment  of  inmates.  At  pres- 
ent, the  replies  reveal  inequality  and  partiality  which  shock  the 
sense  of  equity  and  justice. 

3.  The  conditions  relating  to  beds,  bedding  and  cell  furni- 
ture may  be  considered  together.  The  questions  asked  were: 
"Kind  of  beds?"  "Kind  and  cleanliness  of  bedding?"  "Bed- 
ding washed  how  often?"     "Other  furniture?" 

Spartan  simplicity  reigns  in  the  furniture  of  cells:  a  table, 
a  chair,  an  iron  frame,  hinged  to  swing  against  the  wall  or  a 
canvas  hammock,  occasionally  a  shelf  and  a  mirror.  Often  we 
must  imagine  bunk  over  bunk,  in  the  same  cell  or  cage,  crowded 
until  the  horrors  of  stench  and  suffocation  are  indescribable. 
Simplicity  is  desirable;  there  is  no  call  for  luxury;  but  there  is 
no  reason  or  fairness  in  subjecting  unconvicted  citizens  to  dirt 
and  crowding,  and  thus  punishing  them  more  severely  than  the 
felons  sent  to  a  State  prison,  and  that  even  before  trial,  while 
they  are  legally  and  presumptively  innocent. 

So  far  as  we  could  learn,  the  prisoners  rarely  suffer  from 
cold,  since  the  building,  in  cold  weather,  is  usually  artificially 
heated,  and  light  bed  covers  are  adequate. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  jailers  should  not  be  hastily  blamed 
for  the  dirty  condition  of  blankets,  coverlets  and  sheets,  of  which 
many  inspectors  report.  The  clothing  of  vagrants,  tramps,  in- 
ebriates after  debauch,  and  of  disorderly  women,  is  not  often  im- 
maculate, and  very  frequently  is  densely  inhabited.  The  board- 
ing houses  and  dens,  from  which  many  come,  are  alive  with  ver- 
min and  charged  with  germs  of  communicable  disease.  The  life 
habits  of  many  prisoners  are  on  a  level  of  those  of  savages,  with 
a  certain  civilized  refinement  in  the  art  of  accumulating  the  con- 
ditions of  disease. 

What  can  be  expected,  when  we  are  told,  as  we  often  are,  that 
prisoners  are  graciously  permitted  to  wash  their  own  bed  covers, 
inside  the  jail,  when  the  dirt  becomes  unendurable?  When  the 
bath  tub  is  the  only  laundry,  the  chance  of  spreading  disease  is 
increased. 

But  under  an  open  jail  system,  the  filthiest,  vilest  prisoner 
punishes  and  tortures  those  who  have  not  yet  sunk  to  his  level, 


18 

for  the  vermin  crawl  from  him  to  others  and  the  stench  from  his 
dirty  bedding  defiles  all  other  cells  and  corridors.  Under  an 
isolation  cell  system,  this  could  be  prevented;  with  the  open 
structure,  practically  universal,  it  is  impossible  to  prevent  it. 
This  is  true  of  the  lockups  of  many  cities  as  well. 

What  can  you  look  for  in  cells  where  unclean  persons  roll  in 
their  beds,  both  day  and  night,  often  lying  down  with  clothing 
and  shoes  on?  Cleanliness  would  be  a  miracle,  and  therefore  it 
is  rare.  The  best  the  visitor  dares  to  write  is  "the  bedding  is 
fairly  clean,  considering  the  situation."     The  situation  is  vile. 

We  have  no  information  in  the  schedules  about  the  methods 
of  cutting  hair  and  shaving  faces;  but  we  have  seen  and  heard 
enough  to  convince  us  that,  at  this  point,  there  are  innumerable 
opportunities  of  conveying  disease. 

4.  Cleanliness  of  Building. — One  of  the  questions  asked  in 
the  schedule  was:  "Cleanliness  of  building?"  In  respect  to 
corridor  floors  and  walls,  and  the  halls  leading  to  the  jail,  the 
jailer  has  a  better  chance  and  more  control;  and  therefore  the 
most  frequent  answer  was  that  these  parts  of  the  building  were 
clean.  Possibly,  in  a  few  cases,  there  was  a  special  revival  of 
scrubbing,  whitewashing  and  painting,  in  anticipation  of  a  visit 
of  some  distinguished  lady  or  gentleman,  representing  a  learned 
profession  and  the  American  Prison  Association;  but  this  was 
not  common.  We  can  say  that  the  floors  and  walls  of  most  jails 
inspected  were  tolerably  clean,  so  far  as  the  naked  eye  could  see. 
None  of  our  visitors  reported  the  use  of  an  immersion  lens  micro- 
scope in  his  examination  of  the  scrapings  of  floors  and  walls. 
The  bacteriologist,  alone,  could  render  a  strictly  scientific  verdict. 

County  officials  generally  do  not  profess  to  be  bacteriologists; 
but  a  State  central  board  of  supervision  might  well  take  up  the 
study  by  employing  an  agent  with  fortified  eyes.  Some  of  the 
most  dangerous  and  numerous  enemies  of  humanity  are  not  de- 
tected by  a  casual  visitor,  and  do  not  affect  the  sense  of  smell. 

5.  Ventilation. — The  visitor  was  requested  to  report  of  the 
jail:  "How  ventilated?"  The  answers  are  not  often  satis- 
factory and  this  is  not  surprising.  Ventilation  is  a  complicated 
subject.  The  adequate  and  constant  supply  of  fresh  air  depends 
on  several  factors:  the  cubic  contents  of  an  inhabited  space,  the 
number  of  persons  residing  in  this  space,  the  methods  of  influx 
and  exit,  the  character  of  the  air  outside  the  edifice  and  in  the 


19 

cellar,  the  methods  of  setting  up  currents  as  by  open  grates  or 
fans.  The  art  of  ventilation  and  the  hygienic  necessity  for  it 
are  not  always  understood  even  among  educated  people.  Science 
is  not  yet  popular,  nor  well  taught  in  schools;  and  science  is 
supposed  to  be  too  good  for  "jail  birds."  So  long  as  the  super- 
stitious dread  of  "night  air"  fastens  down  windows  in  palaces, 
and  so  long  as  tuberculous  children  cough  out  bacilli  behind 
double  glass  windows  of  mansions,  what  can  we  look  for  in  jails? 
The  answers  are  often  vague.  Mention  is  made  of  windows, 
rarely  of  ventilating  pipes  from  cell  through  roof.  But  are  the 
windows  open?  Are  the  pipes  stopped  up  with  newspapers  "to 
prevent  draughts"?  We  do  not  know.  We  cannot  trust  to  in- 
stinct and  the  sense  of  smell.  The  most  deadly  bacteria  are  odor- 
less, as  well  as  invisible  to  the  unaided  eye.  A  State  bacteriolo- 
gist or  sanitarian  would  examine  the  air  with  microscope  and 
other  instruments  of  precision,  and  he  would  order  changes,  dic- 
tated not  by  mean  local  politics,  but  by  the  universal  demands  of 
science. 

6.  Heating. — Each  visitor  was  asked  to  report  on  the  jail: 
"How  heated?"  The  replies  indicate,  so  far  as  can  be  judged, 
that  the  heating  is  generally  adequate.  As  the  county  jail  is 
generally  near  the  court  house,  often  in  the  same  yard,  the  one 
steam  heating  plant  provides  warmth  in  cold  weather  for  sheriff's 
or  jailer's  residence,  for  the  jail  and  for  the  court  rooms  and 
county  offices. 

We  should  like  to  know  more  of  the  connection  of  the  heating 
arrangements  with  those  for  ventilation;  but  on  this  important 
point  we  have  comparatively  little  information. 

7,  Light. — The  question  was:  "How  lighted?"  We  frankly 
confess  this  question  was  not  a  good  one;  the  special  inquiry  was 
not  thought  to  ask  about  sunlight,  and  the  usual  answer  re- 
lated only  to  the  minor  matter  of  artificial  light  for  evenings. 
It  is  very  interesting  to  note  the  large  number  of  jails  using  elec- 
tric light,  even  in  villages.  This  light  does  not  defile  the  air,  is 
cooler  in  summer  and  can  be  better  controlled  by  the  jailer. 

The  plans  of  the  jails  reveal  what  the  answers  do  not,  for  the 
places  of  windows  are  often  shown.  So  far  as  we  can  judge 
from  the  plans  and  descriptions,  the  window  space  may  be  large 
enough,  but  the  position  of  windows  in  relation  to  cells  is  inex- 


20 

cusably  bad.     It  is  simply  impossible  to  furnish  adequate  sun- 
light in  cells  with  the  customary  style  of  building. 

The  very  structure  of  the  ordinary  jail  is  radically  wrong 
and  offends  against  the  laws  of  health.  From  ocean  to  ocean 
one  uniform  plan  has  been  slavishly  copied  from  bad  models — 
a  cage  of  cells  surrounded  by  a  corridor.  Into  this  corridor  are 
emptied  the  foul  breath  and  foul  language  of  the  occupants  of 
darkened  cells.  It  becomes  a  common  reservoir  of  deadly  ele- 
ments. The  light  of  windows  and  the  pure  outer  air  do  not  enter 
the  cell  directly,  but  only  through  this  corridor.  No  man  builds 
a  pig  pen  or  a  hen  coop  on  such  a  monstrous  plan.  The  jailer's 
residence,  adjoining,  always  admits  sunshine  and  air  directly  into 
each  sleeping  and  living  room. 

8.  ''Source  of  Water  Supply?'' — The  answers  are  fairly  satis- 
factory. The  typical  jail  is  supplied  from  the  city,  town,  or 
village  water  works,  whatever  that  may  be.  But  frequently  this 
water  needs  to  be  sterilized  to  be  safe  for  drinking  purposes.  On 
this  point  we  have  not  sufificient  information;  and  the  problem 
is  one  for  special  investigation.  Here,  again,  a  scientific  inspec- 
tion by  a  central  State  sanitary  authority,  with  vigilant  super- 
vision and  rigid  control,  are  imperatively  demanded.  Local 
supervision  and  regulation  are  farcical.  There  is  too  much  faith 
placed  in  filters;  boiling  the  drinking  water  is  seldom,  if  ever, 
mentioned. 

9.  Sewage. — The  questions  were:  "Closets:  How  many? 
Condition?  Are  night  buckets  used?  Condition  of  plumbing? 
Kind  of  sewerage?     Condition?" 

Our  table  shows  quite  full  and  clear  information  on  these 
points,  and  we  are  in  a  position  to  speak  with  a  degree  of  definite- 
ness  on  the  conditions  relating  to  disposal  of  human  waste. 

One  remark  in  the  reports  requires  comment.  It  is  occasion- 
ally announced,  with  a  note  of  boastful  pride,  that  the  building 
is  clean  and  the  closets  sanitary,  and  that  "disinfectants  are 
freely  used."  We  can  quote  the  highest  medical  authority  for 
saying  that  the  smell  of  carbolic  acid  or  chloride  of  lime  is  sus- 
picious; for  where  plenty  of  hot  water  and  soap  are  used,  and 
where  sunshine  and  air  freely  play  in  every  corner,  and  where 
the  plumbing  is  perfect,  disinfectants  are  not  needed. 

10.  Bathing. — We  sought  information  on  this  important  point 


21 

by  asking:  "Are  there  bathtubs  or  showers?     Number?     Where 
located?     Condition?     Bathe  how  often?" 

It  is  generally  conceded  by  public  sanitary  authorities  that 
the  bath  tub,  in  a  promiscuous  crowd  of  persons,  many  of  them 
having  venereal  skin  diseases,  is  a  vehicle  of  contagion  which 
ought  to  be  abolished.  The  shower  bath,  passing  warm  water 
over  a  well  soaped  man,  on  a  well  drained  cement  floor,  is  more 
effective  and  far  less  dangerous.  It  costs  less  to  supply  warm 
water.  The  reports  seem  to  show  that  there  are  very  few  shower 
baths  in  our  jails,  and  that  where  any  facilities  are  provided, 
they  are  tubs,  which  are  easily  made  dirty  and  dangerous,  and 
are  hard  to  keep  really  clean  and  safe. 

11.  Exercise. — "Prisoners' Exercise:  How  conducted?"  For 
answer,  we  hear,  in  almost  all  the  reports,  the  dull,  monotonous, 
maddening  tramp  of  prisoners  aimlessly  walking  up  and  down 
the  corridor  of  the  county  jails  of  our  land .  Of  course  this  tramp 
is  not  at  the  specific  command  of  the  jailers;  the  slouching  march 
over  the  same  dead  level  of  stone  floor  is  the  only  means  of  exercise, 
and  in  that  sense  is  compulsory.  In  Frangois  Coppe's  story, 
Le  Coupable,  we  have  a  vivid  and  dramatic  picture  of  the  physi- 
cal and  psychical  effects  of  this  irrational,  aimless,  maddening 
form  of  exercise. 

The  problem  of  exercise  cannot  be  separated  from  that  of  oc- 
cupation and  industry.  To  some  slight  extent  the  deplorable 
situation  is  partly  relieved  by  the  fact  that  trusties  are  sometimes 
set  to  work  on  lawns  or  other  outside  Vv^ork;  that  here  and  there 
a  stone  pile  furnishes  rude  music  and  the  faint  hint  of  useful 
labor;  and  that  generally  the  prisoners  must  give  a  few  minutes 
of  their  tedious  days  to  making  beds  and  cleaning  floors. 

But  let  anyone  of  us  imagine  himself  waiting,  perhaps  for  many 
months,  perhaps  even  for  years,  with  no  exercise  but  the  tramp, 
tramp  in  the  close  and  dark  corridor  of  a  county  jail.  It  is  the 
path  straight  to  lunacy.  Why  not  have  walled  yards  in  the  open 
air,  partly  sheltered  from  rain,  covered  over  with  steel  wire  to 
prevent  escape?  It  is  simple;  it  is  easy;  it  is  human  justice; 
it  is  social  interest  and  wisdom.  But  it  is  rarely  thought  of. 
Anyone  who  has  seen  French  jails  of  the  better  sort  knows  how 
easy  it  would  be  to  correct  this  defect. 

12.  Recreation. — A  certain  amount  of  diversion  is  necessary 
for  sanity,  especially  with  idle  men.     In  a  very  few  jails  some 


22 

attention  has  been  paid  to  this  matter.  When  Mr.  Whitman  was 
jailer  in  Cook  County,  Illinois,  he  developed  some  interesting 
plans  in  connection  with  his  Moral  Improvement  Association  and 
his  library.  We  fear  that  the  reading  of  prisoners  and  their 
conversation  are  seldom  helpful  to  character.  Card  playing  is 
the  universal  resource  for  passing  the  dull  and  anxious  waking 
hours;  it  is  better  than  nothing  and  probably  aids  mental  sanity; 
but  too  much  of  it  is  stupid  and  stupefying. 

13.  Of  medical  care  of  prisoners  we  learned  little  from  the 
schedules,  chiefly  because  no  specific  question  called  for  infor- 
mation. In  a  few  large  urban  jails,  a  ward  is  set  apart  for  a 
hospital.  Occasionally  it  is  reported  that  a  physician,  paid  by 
the  county,  makes  regular  visits  or  comes  at  call. 

14.  The  facts  about  crowding  are  fully  and  clearly  brought 
out  in  the  schedules,  which  called  for  answers  to  the  questions: 
"Number  of  cells?  For  men?  For  women?  Size  (of  cells)  ? 
Where  are  children  kept?  Inmates  present — men,  women,  boys, 
girls?" 

Here  we  have  to  do  with  population  and  its  crowding,  with 
reference  to  health.  It  is  evident  that  a  crowded  jail  or  a 
crowded  quarter  of  a  jail  must  have  vitiated  air,  must  depress 
vitality,  must  increase  tendencies  to  low  vice  and  hence  physical 
and  moral  degeneration. 

All  stages  of  occupation  of  space  are  reported,  from  the  en- 
tirely empty  rural  institution,  in  a  prohibition  county  of  Kansas, 
where  the  only  inmate  was  a  man  who  had  kept  a  "blind  pig," 
to  the  ill-smelling  city  jails,  where,  at  times,  the  cells  are  packed 
at  night  like  the  lower  deck  of  a  slave  ship,  and  where  the  cor- 
ridors afford  scant  room  for  the  crowd  of  men  who  swarm  in 
there  during  the  day.  An  average  for  the  whole  country  would 
mean  nothing.  A  few  illustrations  of  jails,  where  conditions  cry 
out  for  reform,  would  be  more  instructive. 

Our  standard  of  crowding  is  that  a  cell  is  crowded  when  it  con- 
tains more  than  one  inmate,  and  less  than  the  necessary  cubic 
feet  of  air  space  and  less  than  the  desirable  current  of  ventila- 
tion, day  or  night. 

Let  us  take  some  examples  from  jails  in  urban  counties: 

In  Birmingham,  Alaljama  (first  in  alphabetical  order  of  States), 
we  find  reported,  240  men  in  72  cells  and  25  women  in  10  cells. 
The  cells  are  8  by  9  feet.     There  was  one  boy. 


23 

In  Denver,  Colorado,  there  were  189  men  in  90  cells  and  22 
women  in  20  cells,  6x9  feet. 

In  Los  Angeles,  California,  there  were  135  men  in  88  cells; 
there  were  30  cells  designed  for  four  men  each,  and  48  cells  de- 
signed for  two  men  each,  8x8  feet  and  8x6  feet. 

In  Colorado  Springs,  Colorado,  there  were  55  men  in  19  cells, 
and  4  women  in  one  cell  room. 

In  Stockton,  California,  there  were  "6  drunks"  in  one  cell, 
15x18  feet,  and  46  prisoners  in  26  cells. 

In  Washington,  D.  C,  the  total  capacity  claimed  by  the 
authorities  was  320,  while  the  total  population  was  474 — a  bad 
example  for  the  capital  city  of  the  nation. 

In  Chicago,  Illinois,  there  were  434  men  in  368  cells,  with  39 
boys  in  a  congregation  by  themselves. 

In  Indianapolis,  Indiana,  143  men  and  16  women  in  54  cells. 
There  were  2  boys,  and  children  are  kept  in  the  women's  depart- 
ment. 

In  Terre  Haute,  Indiana,  there  were  73  men  in  35  cells,  and 
the  visitor  says  there  have  been  1 10  at  a  time  in  this  jail. 

In  Marion,  Iowa,  a  small  jail,  built  with  4  cells  for  men,  had 
20  men. 

No  jail  in  Kansas  is  reported  as  crowded.  Is  that  because  it 
is  virtually  a  prohibition  State?  But  the  jails  of  Kansas  are  not 
models.  Rural  and  village  jails  usually  have  space  enough  for 
health,  but  they  are  among  the  worst  for  vile  familiarities  of 
association.  The  ordinary  standard  for  judging  whether  a  jail 
is  crowded  or  not  is  too  bad  for  a  stable  or  cow  shed,  much  less  for 
human  beings.  This  common  standard  is  that,  so  long  as  men 
can  find  room  in  bunk,  hammock  or  on  stone  floor,  with  a  news- 
paper for  a  mattress,  the  place  is  spacious  enough.  This  is  man- 
slaughter. 

The  modern,  up-to-date,  scientific  standard  is  that  each  pris- 
oner, awaiting  trial,  must  have  a  decent  and  spacious  cell  to  him- 
self, without  corrupting  and  degrading  contact  with  criminals; 
and  that  when  two  inmates  are  in  company,  there  is  crowding  in 
the  hygienic  and  moral  sense.  Judged  by  this  modern  standard, 
almost  every  jail  reported  to  us  requires  to  be  rebuilt  on  a  new 
plan;  almost  all  are  liable  to  be  crowded,  if  there  are  more  than 
two  or  three  prisoners  at  one  time. 


24 


III.  Occupation  of  Prisoners 

The  inmates  of  jails  are  chiefly  of  two  classes— those  await- 
ing trial  and  convicted  misdemeanants.  Sometimes  there  are 
tramps  and  abnormals.  1 1  is  not  necessary  to  offer  proof  to  the 
American  Prison  Association  that  useful  work  is  a  necessary  con- 
dition of  physical  and  moral  soundness. 

We  already  know  that  the  inmates  of  our  jails  are  generally 
idle. 

In  certain  places  there  is  some  attempt  to  connect  a  stone  pile 
or  some  such  makeshift  and  make-believe  employment  with  a  jail, 
largely  for  the  discouragement  of  tramps. 

In  143  jails  no  occupation  is  reported  for  men,  and  in  155 
jails  women  are  said  to  be  entirely  idle.  In  26  jails  the  men  do 
a  little  housework,  and  in  33,  the  women  help  with  cooking,  scrub- 
bing and  other  routine  tasks.  Perhaps  many  of  the  men  and 
women  reported  idle  may  be  required  to  keep  their  cells  in  some 
kind  of  order,  though  this  is  not  reported  in  the  schedules.  In 
7  jails,  the  women  do  sewing.  Workshops  for  men  are  mentioned 
in  7  jails.  City  prisoners  are  worked  in  chain  gangs  in  two 
prisons  in  Colorado,  and  in  three  other  jails,  work  on  streets  or 
roads  is  mentioned.  Idleness  is  the  rule.  In  only  2  jails  could 
we  find  any  custom  of  encouraging  labor  by  payment  of  gratui- 
ties or  wages. 

In  Maine,  Connecticut,  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania,  some 
systematic  arrangement  for  industries  is  made. 

Under  the  present  jail  system,  and  the  laws  relating  to  jail 
population,  we  are  satisfied  no  considerable  improvement  can  be 
made.     The  disease  is  too  deep  to  be  cured  by  mild  remedies. 

The  ordinary  term  of  imprisonment  of  convicted  misdemean- 
ants, vagrants  and  inebriates  is  too  short  for  any  sort  of  indus- 
trial training  or  systematic  production. 

The  local  county  jail  has  too  small  a  population  to  justify 
systematic  arrangements  for  rational  and  productive  employ- 
ment under  competent  direction. 

A  careful  study  of  the  situation  in  all  parts  of  the  land  has 
already  driven  many  of  our  members  long  ago  to  the  conclusion 
that  we  must  have  district  labor  colonies  or  workhouses  for  those 
convicted  of  offenses,  and  that  the  term  of  degenerates  must  be  at 
least  two  years,  if  we  really  intend  to  fit  them  for  useful  lives. 


25 


IV.  Personal  Contact  and  Influence  of  Prisoners  Among 

Themselves 

Useful  labor  and  good  company  are  two  of  the  most  essential 
factors  in  forming  a  good  character;  idleness  and  vicious  com- 
panions inevitably  destroy  fitness  for  social  conduct. 

Our  investigation  has  brought  together  all  the  essential  facts 
relating  to  the  conduct  of  prisoners  with  each  other.  Under 
present  conditions  and  laws,  the  county  must  provide  for  males 
and  females;  children,  youth  and  adults;  first  offenders,  habitual 
criminals,  vagabonds,  prostitutes;  witnesses  held  for  their  testi- 
mony; poor  debtors  whose  crime  is  their  poverty;  idiots,  im- 
beciles, insane,  epileptics;  persons  arrested  on  suspicion  and 
apoplectics  whom  the  sapient  policeman  could  not  distinguish 
from  drunkards.  Often  all  these,  under  one  roof  and  manage- 
ment, in  a  building  so  built  that  cries  and  whispers  travel  along  a 
corridor  with  cages  open  at  the  side. 

We  are  strongly  tempted  to  specify  particular  cities  where 
nameless  abuses  exist;  where  vile  men  find  their  way  to  the  door 
behind  which  prostitutes  stand;  where  little  children  are  kept  in 
rooms  with  polluted  and  diseased  adults;  where  a  thoughtless 
lad  is  thrust  by  the  hand  of  our  country's  laws  into  the  school  of 
vice  and  crime,  taught  by  trained  scoundrels;  where  a  girl  for 
venial  fault  is  shut  up  with  her  damnation  for  a  night  with  some 
strumpet;  where  a  poor  insane  victim  of  brain  disorder  howls  all 
night  in  company  with  rufifians;  where  an  honest  fellow,  unable 
to  pay  a  fine  for  a  spree,  is  locked  in  with  burglars  and  thieves. 

These  are  not  pictures  from  novels;  they  are  bald,  prosaic 
facts  set  down  by  honest  eye-witnesses  in  answer  to  printed  ques- 
tions. 

V.  We  have  inquired,  just  now,  how  prisoners  help  each 
other  to  perdition  by  association  in  idleness. 

What  does  the  State  do  to  furnish  counteracting  influences 
of  a  higher  character?  What  is  the  Church  doing,  in  remem- 
brance of  Him  who  said,  "I  was  in  prison  and  ye  came  unto 
Me"? 

We  are  ashamed  to  print  the  truth,  and  yet  we  are  afraid  to 
conceal  it!  We  asked  our  faithful  and  competent  visitors  to  in- 
quire and  answer  these  specific  questions:  "Reading  matter? 
Religious  services?" 


26 

Some  sort  of  reading  material  is  supplied  in  253  jails  of  the 
289  jails  reported,  and  none  is  reported  in  25.  Mention  is  made 
of  visitors  in  7  jails.  Religious  services,  in  all  degrees  of  regu- 
larity and  efficiency,  are  held  in  183  jails;  while  in  88,  no  sort 
of  exercises  of  this  class  is  known. 

VI.  Administration 

It  was  not  necessary  to  ask  our  visitors  to  describe  the  system 
of  official  administration  of  county  jails,  for  that  we  find  in  the 
laws  of  the  States  to  which  we  have  given  as  much  attention  as 
time  permitted. 

The  system  is  fairly  uniform  and  is  familiar  to  the  American 
Prison  Association.  The  county  commissioners  represent  the 
taxpayers  in  making  regulations  and  caring  for  public  buildings. 
Ultimately,  as  elective  officers,  they  must  obey  their  masters,  and 
so  they  reflect  the  popular  opinion  of  the  county — its  knowledge 
and  its  ignorance,  its  wisdom  and  its  meanness,  its  humanity  and 
its  brutal  indifference.  Sometimes,  let  us  hope,  they  make  some 
efforts  to  educate  their  masters;  but  that  is  slow  work,  and  a 
very  important  part  of  their  duty  is  to  exploit  their  office  while 
they  hold  it,  rather  as  a  sinecure  than  a  trust.  We  give  full 
praise  to  commissioners  who  try  to  know  and  do  their  duty. 
Only  the  other  kind  has  any  reason  to  wince  at  our  description  of 
reported  facts. 

The  sheriff  is  also  elected  by  the  people — so  it  is  set  down  in 
the  law.  The  inside  facts,  as  told  in  confidence  by  "The  County 
Chairman,"  often  have  the  appearance  of  a  selection  by  a 
"ring."  Sometimes  the  sheriff  is  jailer — the  rule  in  rural  com- 
munities; sometimes  he  is  a  boss  and  hires  a  jailer.  The  method 
is  indifferent.  The  essential  fact  which  concerns  us  is  that  the 
State  law  against  crime  is  not  executed  by  State  officials,  but  by 
local  officials.     Is  this  logical?     Is  it  safe? 

We  did  ask  one  innocent-looking  question:  "  In  and  out  fee?" 
Some  of  the  visitors  did  not  understand  the  question;  they  had 
never  studied  the  "fee  vs.  salary"  controversy,  or  it  had  been 
settled  long  ago  in  their  neighborhood.  We  turned  up  plenty 
of  ugly  testimony  to  the  effect  that  when  a  county  sheriff  is  paid 
for  his  services  in  fees,  rather  than  by  salary,  he  must  have  the 
sturdy  virtue  of  a  Cromwell  or  a  Lincoln  to  preserve  his  soul  in 
a  .state  of  grace.     Most  county  sheriffs  are  too  honest  to  f)retend 


27 

to  know  what  a  "state  of  grace"  signifies.  That  much  to  their 
credit!  But  we  are  attacking  a  system,  not  particular  indi- 
viduals, unless  they  defend  the  old  system;  then  they  come  out 
in  the  open  as  public  enemies. 

The  testimony  from  all  parts  of  the  land  demonstrates  that 
the  fee  system  tends  to  injustice,  to  false  imprisonment,  to  de- 
lay of  trials,  to  plunder  of  the  public  treasury,  coming  and  going, 
in  and  out,  to  partisan  corruption,  to  ofificial  robbery,  to  the  de- 
filement of  the  character  of  the  agents  of  justice. 

VII.     Discipline   Within   Jails;     Rules   of   Conduct   and 

Methods  of  Enforcing  Them;  and  the 

"Kangaroo  Court" 

We  find  explicit  mention  of  self-government  among  prisoners, 
with  some  degree  of  control  by  the  jail  authorities,  in  several 
jails  of  the  Western  and  Southern  States.  This  self-government 
is  sometimes  called  the  "Kangaroo  Court";  whether  it  was  im- 
ported from  the  British  South  Pacific  colonies,  along  with  other 
strange  marsupial  animals,  we  have  not  discovered  information. 
It  seems  to  be  an  American  revival  of  a  vicious  old  English  cus- 
tom; its  persistence  is  thought,  by  experts,  to  be  a  proof  of  the 
incapacity  of  the  authorities  to  govern  as  their  duty  requires  and 
as  one  more  evidence  that  the  crowding  of  offenders  and  suspects, 
of  all  grades,  in  one  hall,  gives  power  of  tyranny  to  the  basest 
bullies  of  the  herd.  This  singular  and  dangerous  institution 
must  be  discussed  by  itself,  with  further  facts. 

We  have  made  a  collection  of  rules  for  the  conduct  of  pris- 
oners by  courts,  commissioners  and  other  authorities,  and  these 
cover  the  care  of  cells,  cleanliness,  order,  propriety  and  personal 
treatment  of  officers  and  fellow  prisoners,  etc. 

These  rules  are  enforced  by  penalties.  Usually  these  discip- 
linary punishments  are  graded  according  to  the  offense  and  the 
attitude  of  the  prisoner.  In  83  jails,  special  punishment  cells 
or  dungeons  are  used;  in  2  the  offender  is  handcuffed  to  the  door 
of  his  cell;  in  11  jails  reprimand  or  loss  of  privileges  may  be  ap- 
plied; in  6  the  diet  is  restricted;  in  8  the  offender  is  confined 
in  his  cell  and  not  allowed  to  walk  in  the  corridor;  in  i  jail  work 
is  prescribed;  in  14  the  measures  are  not  specified;  in  i  the  lighter 
penalties  are  applied  by  the  prisoners'  court;    in  61   jails,  no 


28 

punishment  seems  to  be  employed.     Here,  also,  is  a  large  subject 
for  special  treatment. 

VIII.    The  Population  of  Jails 

The  schedules  called  for  information,  on  the  data  named,  of 
persons  of  the  following  classes,  each  class  being  subdivided  into 
men,  women,  boys  and  girls:  (i)  Awaiting  trial;  (2)  enduring 
a  jail  sentence  or  detained  because  of  unpaid  fine;  (3)  sentenced 
to  State  prison;  (4)  sentenced  to  reform  school;  (5)  epileptics; 
(6)  feeble-minded;  (7)  sentenced  to  reformatory;  (8)  insane, 
waiting;  (9)  insane,  chronic;  (10)  tramps;  (11)  witnesses;  (12) 
city  prisoners. 

Those  awaiting  trial  and  those  serving  short  sentences  are 
naturally  the  largest  number.  Only  those  of  the  first  class  should 
be  in  a  jail;  all  the  others  should  be  placed  elsewhere,  save  those 
on  their  way  to  State  prisons  and  places  of  correction.  In  these 
first  two  classes  we  discern  a  large  number  of  boys  and  also  many 
girls,  many  of  whom,  under  a  good  system  of  juvenile  courts  and 
detention  homes,  might  be  spared  the  demoralizing  influences  of 
the  place. 

Boys  sent  to  reform  schools  figure  in  these  columns. 

Under  the  head  of  "abnormals,"  we  find  epileptics,  feeble- 
minded and  insane.  The  authorities  are  not  always,  nor  often, 
psychiatrists,  and  the  returns  sometimes  show  hesitation  whether 
a  party  should  be  classed  as  epileptic,  insane  or  just  plain  drunk. 
The  number  is  not  very  large — not  large  enough  to  make  it  a 
burden  to  the  State  to  give  them  decent  care  in  suitable  institu- 
tions, yet  too  large  for  the  honor  of  our  country.  Manifestly, 
all  members  of  these  classes  are  out  of  place  in  jails. 

Of  "witnesses"  detained  for  their  testimony,  61  are  noted  in 
the  replies.  The  reasons  for  their  detention  are  not  given  in  de- 
tail and  the  whole  problem  of  their  presence  in  county  jails  re- 
quires a  separate  study. 

The  column  given  to  "tramps"  in  county  jails  reveals  the  fact 
that  they  arc  foiiiul  in  jails,  in  almost  all  parts  of  the  Union.  As 
anf;ther  special  report  is  devoted  to  this  subject,  at  this  session 
(by  Mr.  O.  F.  Lewis),  we  omit  a  discussion  of  this  aspect  of  our 
problem. 


29 


Proposed  Improvements 

A  standard  of  requirements  for  a  really  modern  jail;  recom- 
mendations of  the  committee. 

Some  of  the  requirements  cannot  be  met  simply  by  changes  in 
the  structure  and  administration  of  the  jail  itself.  Modern  con- 
ditions and  knowledge  call  for  radical  changes  in  laws  and  in  the 
entire  State  system  of  correction  and  punishment.  But  some  of 
the  improvements  demanded  could  be  made  at  once  in  any  county 
by  an  enlightened  public  and  a  vigorous  county  board. 

I.  The  jail  must  be  strong  and  safe.  There  are  architects  and 
jail  builders  who  can  easily  and  economically  construct  a  jail  to 
meet  these  conditions. 

II.  The  jail  should  be  so  built  and  its  alTairs  so  administered 
that  the  health  of  prisoners  and  officers  shall  not  be  impaired. 
Among  the  conditions  of  health  are: 

(i)  A  sufficient  supply  of  simple,  wholesome  food.  The  best 
way  would  be  to  have  the  dietaries  regulated  by  a  State  commis- 
sion of  physicians.  Laymen  have  not  the  knowledge  to  arrange 
balanced  rations,  suitable  for  all  classes  of  prisoners.  Local  phy- 
sicians may  be  authorized  to  direct  diet,  in  the  absence  of  a  State 
commission. 

(2)  Clean  underclothing  is  essential  to  health,  and  it  should  be 
furnished  by  the  county  if  the  prisoner  is  too  poor  to  pay  for  it. 
This  underclothing  should  be  washed  in  a  laundry  and  not  in 
bath  tubs,  as  sometimes  occurs. 

(3)  The  bedding  should  be  clean  when  furnished  and  kept 
clean;  no  prisoner  should  lie  on  his  bed  in  the  daytime,  unless 
sick,  in  which  case  he  should  be  in  a  hospital  ward. 

(4)  Ventilation  should  be  secured  by  providing  a  large  cell, 
with  a  window  opening  directly  to  the  outside  air;  and  the  air 
should  be  renewed  constantly  by  forced  currents  through  pipes 
to  the  roof  from  each  cell. 

(5)  Each  cell  should  be  heated  from  a  central  system  and  the 
foul  air  removed  by  forced  drafts.  The  air  of  one  cell  should 
never  be  breathed  by  anyone  except  the  single  occupant  of  that 
cell. 

(6)  Lighting.  For  artificial  light,  electricity  is  best,  because 
it  does  not  foul  the  air,  in  summer  it  does  not  heat  the  cell,  and 
it  is  most  easily  controlled  by  the  officers  on  guard. 


30 

Natural  light  is  necessary  to  purify  the  air  and  destroy  bacteria, 
and  it  should  come  into  the  cell  directly  from  the  outside.  A  cell 
without  sunlight  is  a  center  of  infection  for  the  whole  jail. 

(7)  The  drinking  water  should  be  analyzed  by  competent  ex- 
perts, and,  if  necessary,  boiled  to  prevent  intestinal  disease. 
Filters  are  generally  dangerous. 

(8)  The  waste  water,  with  human  excrementitious  matter, 
should  be  disposed  of  through  approved  plumbing  drains  and 
sewers.  Cesspools  are  dangerous  as  well  as  disgusting.  Night 
buckets  cannot  be  kept  clean. 

(9)  Provision  for  bathing  should  be  made  by  means  of  shower 
baths,  in  screened  compartments,  and  the  waste  water  conveyed 
by  cement  floors  to  the  sewer.  Tubs  are  means  of  communi- 
cating venereal  and  other  diseases. 

(10)  Provisions  should  be  made  for  at  least  one-half  hour's 
exercise,  daily,  in  the  open  air.  Still  better,  if  convicted  prisoners 
must  be  retained,  by  some  useful  industry  in  the  open  air  or  in 
well-ventilated  sheds  or  rooms. 

(11)  Recreations  are  essential  to  health  if  prisoners  are  held 
for  some  months. 

(12)  A  jail  should  be  provided  with  a  hospital  ward  for  the 
sick,  or  with  special  cells.  A  physician  should  call,  at  least  once 
a  week,  to  inspect  sanitary  conditions  and  should  be  ready  to  give 
advice  and  aid  to  the  sick  at  all  times,  at  the  expense  of  the  county 
where  the  prisoner  cannot  pay. 

(13)  The  prisoners  should  not  be  crowded ,  for  crowding  vitiates 
the  air  and  increases  peril  from  contagious  and  infectious  diseases. 
Each  prisoner  should  be  in  a  cell  alone. 

III.  Occupation.  Idleness  is  injurious  to  health  and  morals  of 
the  prisoner  and  burdens  the  public.  Prisoners  awaiting  trial 
should  have  an  opportunity  of  working  for  wages;  and  if  con- 
victed persons  must,  for  a  time,  be  kept  in  jail,  they  should  be 
compelled  to  work  at  some  useful  and  productive  industry. 

IV.  Personal  Contact  of  Prisoners. 

I.  Classes  of  persons  who  should  never  be  placed  in  a  jail  or 
a  lockup.  The  sick,  those  suffering  from  sunstroke  or  apoplexy, 
the  insane,  the  feeble-minded,  the  epileptic — all  who  are  abnor- 
mal or  ill — should  be  sent  to  a  hospital,  never  to  a  prison. 

Boys  and  girls  who  have  committed  some  offense,  or  are  in 


31 

trouble,  should  be  sent  to  a  detention  home  and  placed  under  the 
care  of  school  officers. 

First  offenders  and  many  drinking  men  who  are  now  committed 
to  jail  on  sentences  might  better  be  disposed  of  by  suspending 
the  execution  of  their  sentences,  on  condition  that  they  secure 
employment,  use  their  earnings  for  the  support  of  their  families 
and  keep  out  of  vicious  company.  If  the  court  has  a  probation 
officer,  the  man  should  be  placed  under  his  supervision.  If  there 
is  no  probation  officer,  the  man  should  be  required  to  report  to 
the  court,  or  to  some  person  designated  by  it,  at  stated  periods. 
If  work  on  public  roads  is  in  progress,  it  might  furnish  employ- 
ment for  men  released  on  suspended  sentence.    (W.  F.  Spalding.) 

2.  Every  convicted  person,  the  moment  sentence  is  pro- 
nounced, should  be  taken  immediately  to  the  proper  reformatory, 
penitentiary,  district  workhouse  or  labor  colony. 

Thus  the  number  of  persons  in  county  jails  in  idleness  would  be 
greatly  reduced. 

3.  Only  persons  charged  with  serious  offenses  and  crimes  and 
awaiting  trial  should  be  left  in  the  county  jail;  and  each  prisoner 
would  be  saved  from  contamination  by  being  placed  in  a  cell  so 
constructed  that  he  could  not  see  nor  converse  with  any  other 
prisoner,  but  he  would  be  under  the  watch  and  influence  of  proper 
persons  appointed  by  the  authorities. 

V.  Outside  Influences.  Suitable  provisions  should  be  made,  in 
the  character  of  sheriffs,  jailers  and  guards,  and  by  visitors  from 
without,  to  influence  the  prisoners  in  confinement  by  conversa- 
tion, reading  and  proper  recreations. 

VI.  Administration.  All  officers  who  come  in  contact  with  pris- 
oners should  be  paid  adequate  salaries,  and  the  fee  system  should 
be  abolished  as  a  source  of  corruption  and  injustice.  No  one 
who  has  to  deal  with  prisoners  should  be  permitted  to  sell  them 
food  or  luxuries. 

VII.  Discipline.  Rules  of  conduct  of  prisoners  should  be  drawn 
up  by  a  State  central  authority  to  prevent  arbitrary  treatment  of 
prisoners.  Disciplinary  measures  should  be  defined  and  limited 
by  the  same  authority. 


32 


IV 


REPORT  OF  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE  ON  JAILS, 
LOCKUPS  AND  POLICE  STATIONS 

By  H.  H.  Shirer,  Chairman 

Indianapolis,  1913 

This  committee  was  created  several  years  ago  for  the  purpose  of 
submitting  reports  from  time  to  time  upon  the  subjects  referred 
to  in  this  title.  This  report  will  be  limited  almost  exclusively  to 
county  jails — particularly  those  used  as  places  for  detention  of 
persons  convicted  of  crime. 

The  chairman  directed  a  letter  to  all  members  of  the  committee 
and  received  replies  from  five.  Each  of  the  correspondents  gave 
suggestions  which  are  incorporated  in  this  report.  Inasmuch  as 
some  members  of  the  committee  did  not  respond,  it  seems  proper 
that  those  assisting  in  the  preparation  of  this  report  should  be 
mentioned.  Helpful  suggestions  were  received  from  Prof.  Arthur 
J.  Todd,  University  of  Illinois;  W.  A.  Gates,  Secretary  Cali- 
fornia Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections;  C.  L.  Stonaker,  Gen- 
eral Secretary  of  State  Charities  Aid  and  Prison  Reform  Associa- 
tion of  New  Jersey;  Dr.  W.  H.  Oates,  Prison  Inspector  of  the 
State  of  Alabama,  and  William  T.  Cross,  General  Secretary  of 
the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction. 

The  time  allotted  to  this  committee  necessitates  a  brief  report. 
Without  going  into  a  detailed  argument,  the  following  recom- 
mendations are  set  forth: 

1.  In  states  where  there  is  no  definite  form  of  inspection  or 
supervision  by  a  state  board  or  an  official  a  law  to  that  effect 
should  be  passed  so  as  to  have  a  comprehensive  report  on  county 
jails. 

2.  Wherever  possible,  place  full  power  in  a  state  board  or  an 
official  to  make  inspection  and  issue  orders  of  such  a  character  as 
to  make  the  recommendations  effective  after  an  inspection  has 
been  had. 

3.  The  establishment  of  state  farms  for  misdemeanants,  or  dis- 
trict workhouses,  in  order  to  prevent  convicted  offenders  from 
being  confined  in  cf)unty  jails  or  other  local  institutions. 

4.  Modify  court  procedure  by  permitting  the  suspension  of  an 
orfler  to  cfMnmit   to  jail  for  failure  to  pay  a  fine,  provided  that 


33 

wherever  possible  restitution  against  the  offended  person  shall 
be  made  by  the  offender  and  a  frequent  report  be  made  to  the 
trial  court  or  to  an  official  thereof. 

5.  The  establishment  of  an  habitual  offender  act  so  as  to  per- 
mit long  term  imprisonment  of  persons  repeatedly  found  guilty 
of  minor  offenses. 

6.  The  almost  universal  custom  of  placing  the  county  jail  in 
charge  of  the  sheriff  should  be  radically  changed  so  as  to  provide 
that  some  designated  authority  appoint  the  keeper  of  the  jail. 
He  may  or  may  not  be  the  sheriff. 

7.  Abolish  all  features  of  the  fee  system  of  compensation  for 
care  and  custody  of  prisoners  in  county  jails. 

8.  Inasmuch  as  many  of  the  inmates  of  county  jails  are  held 
awaiting  trial  for  offenses  against  the  laws  of  the  state  rather  than 
ordinances  of  the  local  community,  county  jails  must  in  time  come 
under  the  direct  control  of  the  state,  and  ultimately  the  buildings 
should  be  owned  by  the  same  governmental  unit. 

In  regard  to  the  first  two  recommendations,  it  is  sufficient  to 
say  that  in  a  number  of  states  certain  boards  now  have  authority 
to  investigate  and  inspect  county  jails.  Their  reports  are  pub- 
lished in  full,  but  it  seems  that  these  investigations  and  reports  are 
not  very  effective  in  producing  desirable  changes  in  equipment 
and  management.  At  the  Prison  Congress  last  year  there  was 
read  a  paper,  prepared  by  Dr.  W.  H.  Oates,  State  Prison  Inspector 
of  Alabama,  who  described  in  detail  the  very  practical  and 
effective  plan  in  that  southern  state.  The  state  prison  inspector 
has  power  to  transfer  the  inmates  of  a  county  jail  to  another  insti- 
tution when  he  finds  an  insanitary  jail.  The  inspector  can  also 
order  the  construction  of  a  new  building  or  the  radical  remodeling 
of  an  old  one,  as  well  as  issue  rules  for  the  general  conduct  of  any 
prison. 

The  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania,  at  its  last  session,  passed  an 
act  conferring  upon  the  Board  of  Public  Charities  express  au- 
thority to  examine  certain  institutions,  including  jails,  and  to 
recommend  changes  in  structure  and  management.  Upon  failure 
of  the  responsible  officials  to  give  proper  attention  to  such  recom- 
mendations within  ninety  days,  the  Board  of  Public  Charities 
shall  notify  the  district  attorney  of  the  county  in  which  the  insti- 
tution is  located,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  proceed  by  indictment 
or  otherwise  to  remedy  the  objectionable  conditions. 


34 

In  the  matter  of  special  institutions  for  the  confinement  of  con- 
victed misdemeanants,  the  desirable  solution  would  be  farms 
owned  and  controlled  by  the  state,  with  a  provision  that  the  per- 
sons committed  thereto  shall  be  under  limited  indeterminate 
sentences  and  shall  be  released  only  after  a  specified  minimum 
term  of  custody  at  the  farm.  This  method  already  prevails  in  the 
Reformatory  for  Women  in  New  York,  and  is  provided  for  in 
relation  to  a  similar  institution  now  under  construction  in  Ohio. 
These  recommendations  would  be  somewhat  difficult  to  carry  out 
in  certain  states  where  there  is  a  number  of  city  and  county 
workhouses,  unless  these  workhouses  are  so  far  in  advance  of  the 
average  institution  of  that  name  that  in  some  way  they  can  be 
continued  as  a  part  of  the  state  farm  plan.  Where  the  state  farm 
seems  to  be  impracticable,  there  should  be  established  a  scheme 
for  district  workhouses  or  farms,  each  district  to  include  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  counties  so  as  to  afford  a  reasonably  large  number 
of  inmates  to  make  the  institution  practicable  in  its  operation. 
In  the  establishment  of  state  farms  and  district  workhouses  spe- 
cial care  must  be  taken  to  provide  definite  forms  of  labor  for  all 
of  the  inmates.  While  farm  labor  alone  may  be  sufficient  in  a  few 
instances,  it  will  generally  be  necessary  to  provide  for  some  other 
forms  of  occupation  in  addition  to  general  farm  work. 

The  recommendation  for  the  modification  of  court  procedure  is 
already  gaining  recognition  through  the  enactment  of  suspended 
sentence  laws  with  a  provision  for  an  adequate  number  of  proba- 
tion officers.  Such  laws  should  contain  a  definite  provision  requir- 
ing the  offender  to  make  restitution  in  cases  of  petit  larceny  and 
other  offenses  against  property,  subject  to  such  terms  as  the  court 
may  impose.  The  payment  of  fines  upon  the  instalment  plan  is 
also  desirable. 

In  regard  to  the  habitual  offender  act,  one  illustration  will  be 
sufficient:  "The  sheriff  of  a  county  in  New  Jersey  went  over  his 
records  for  five  years  and  found  that  he  had  six  men  who  had 
spent  during  those  five  years  one-half  their  time  serving  short 
sentences  in  the  county  jail.  He  presented  his  facts  to  a  grand 
jury,  whf)  promptly  brought  indictments  against  these  six  men 
under  the  habitual  offender  act.  Two  of  the  men  reformed  and 
became  good  citizens,  and  the  other  four  disappeared  from  the 
county.  That  county  has  not  been  troubled  in  the  last  year  or 
two  with  rounders." 


35 

The  sixth  and  seventh  recommendations  concerning  placing  the 
jail  in  charge  of  an  appointed  person  who  has  a  special  fitness  for 
the  position  and  the  abolishment  of  the  too-common  fee  system 
need  no  further  comment  before  the  members  of  this  association. 

The  last  recommendation — state  ownership  and  control — is  the 
ideal  toward  which  persons  interested  in  prison  reform  should 
strive.  Effective  state  inspection  may  be  sufficient  for  a  time,  but 
in  some  states  bonding  laws  are  so  rigid  that  no  state  official  can 
order  a  local  community  to  make  expensive  changes  without  a 
referendum  vote.  Other  elements  of  home  rule  may  serve  to 
make  state  inspection  very  difficult:  probably  not  without  con- 
siderable friction  between  state  and  local  authorities. 

The  most  critical  period  in  a  first  offender's  life  is  the  time  of 
his  commitment  prior  to  trial.  This  is  the  time  when  the  state 
should,  through  direct  ownership  and  control,  provide  very  care- 
ful supervision  and  watch  over  such  men  in  their  hours  of  greatest 
need.  Many  of  these  men  are  not  convicted  and  they  have  a 
right  to  expect  and  to  demand  reasonable  care  and  consideration 
prior  to  the  time  at  which  they  are  declared  to  be  innocent  of  the 
offenses  for  which  they  had  been  accused. 

The  committee  leaves  it  to  others  to  report  upon  recommenda- 
tions concerning  lockups  and  police  stations,  a  problem  which  is 
as  great  as  the  county  jail,  or  even  more  so. 


V 

ABSTRACT  OF  REPORT  OF  COMMITTEE  ON  JAILS, 
LOCKUPS  AND  POLICE  STATIONS 

By  John  L.  Whitman 

Of  Chicago,  Chairman,  1914 

Intelligent  inspection  has  in  many  cities  or  communities  been 
made,  and  recommendations  followed,  which,  when  carried  out, 
resulted  in  improving  conditions  in  some  respects — possibly  in 
reconstruction,  or  even  new  construction,  where  old,  dilapidated, 
or  antiquated  buildings  had  previously  been  utilized  as  places  of 
detention  for  those  charged  with  having  violated  the  law.  These 
improvements,  in  most  instances,  have  been  made  along  approved 
lines,  and  are  more  or  less  permanent  in  their  character,  but  are 


36 

not  radical  enough  to  even  approach  ideal  conditions  that  should 
prevail  in  houses  of  detention,  which  are  intended  only  to  house 
those  who  are  suspected  of  being  misdemeanants  or  felons. 

In  reality  it  is  here  that  exhaustive  research  work  should  be 
done  looking  to  the  solution  of  the  great  problem,  The  Cause  of 
Crime,  which  has  occupied  the  attention  and  been  discussed  very 
seriously  by  experts  and  specialists  in  their  scientific  study  of  the 
subject. 

Before  preparing  this  report  the  chairman  communicated  with 
the  entire  membership  of  the  committee  and  received  statements 
from  most  of  them,  from  which  it  can  be  deduced  that  the  con- 
sensus of  opinion  is  that  the  jail  system,  as  Mr.  Leonard  called  it, 
is  not  productive  of  the  sort  of  results  that  the  public  have  a 
right  to  expect  from  it. 

Our  present  system,  which  provides,  in  some  instances,  only  for 
the  imposition  of  a  fine  and  imprisonment  in  case  of  non-payment, 
has  not  proven  to  be  a  cure.  Our  probation  and  parole  laws  have 
been  operated  successfully  only  in  a  limited  number  of  cases, 
probably  because  there  has  not  been  a  complete  and  exhaustive 
study  made  of  the  cases  that  would  mean  a  good  diagnosis,  enab- 
ling the  administrators  of  the  law  to  prescribe  a  curative  treat- 
ment. 

Houses  of  detention  will  not  be  performing  their  natural  func- 
tions to  the  fullest  extent  until  facilities  are  provided  in  them, 
and  they  are  manned  by  those  competent  to  use  those  facilities  in 
making  a  proper  diagnosis  of  the  cases  committed  to  them,  so 
that  intelligent  treatment  may  be  accorded  the  individuals  there 
or  in  institutions  better  fitted  to  administer  a  curative  remedy, 
which  will  either  mean  rehabilitation  of  the  patient  or  a  protection 
for  the  public.  This  would  also  be  assisting  those  who  are 
attempting  to  solve  the  problem  as  to  "The  Cause  of  Crime." 

Mr.  Thomas,  Secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities  and 
Corrections  of  Colorado,  said:  "Throughout  the  United  States 
we  are  following  the  most  expensive  and  least  effective  system  of 
dealing  with  petty  misdemeanants.  The  absolute  absence  of 
reformatory  influences  in  jails,  lockups,  and  police  stations  is  a 
sad  commentary  on  public  economy,  as  other  organizations  must 


37 

expend  the  people's  money  to  counteract  the  physical  demoraliza- 
tion caused  by  the  carelessness  of  the  divisions  of  public  adminis- 
tration. It  is  to  be  regretted  that  there  is  a  dearth  of  literature 
on  jail  architecture  and  management.  It  seems  physically  and 
financially  impossible  to  remodel  the  existing  jails,  or  their  man- 
agement, to  conform  with  present-day  ideas;  but  much  can  be 
done  to  improve  conditions. 

"Public  officials  should  be  educated  to  the  necessity  of  seeking 
expert  advice  when  new  jails  are  to  be  erected.  The  average  man 
who  has  to  do  with  letting  contracts  for  the  erection  of  jails 
knows  little  or  nothing  of  what  is  required  in  such  a  place;  nor 
is  the  average  architect  competent  to  present  properly  designed 
plans  for  such  an  institution.  In  the  future  there  should  be  a 
definite  policy  pursued  in  relation  to  the  requirements  of  jails, 
and  the  architectural  details  of  same  should  conform  to  the  policy 
adopted. 

"The  question  of  location  should  also  be  carefully  considered. 
Trained  men  should  be  in  charge  of  the  jails,  and  a  reformatory 
influence  be  thrown  around  the  inmates  immediately  they  are 
received.  It  is  here  the  regeneration  of  the  lawbreakers  should 
commence,  and  the  discipline  of  the  place  should  be  a  part  of  a 
well-considered  and  approved  system,  beginning  with  the  jail  and 
ending  with  the  penitentiary." 

If,  upon  examination,  some  are  found  to  be  mentally  deficient, 
then  a  careful  study  should  be  made  to  determine  to  what  degree, 
if  at  all,  they  could  be  benefited  by  any  kind  of  professional  treat- 
ment, or  how  they  should  be  handled  while  restrained  of  their 
liberty  after  conviction,  or  awaiting  the  judgment  of  the  court 
before  trial. 

When  the  courts  learn  that  such  information  is  at  hand  as 
experts  and  professional  men  can  give  in  a  report  after  examina- 
tion has  been  made  by  them  of  mental  deficiency  or  physical  ill- 
ness, the  courts  will  undoubtedly  be  anxious  to  secure  it  and  be 
guided  thereby  in  determining  what  judgment  to  render;  if  the 
accused  is  guilty  of  a  crime,  what  sort  of  care  he  should  get,  and 
what  sort  of  an  institution  should  restrain  him,  the  diagnosis  in 
his  case  following  him  to  that  institution.  If  released  by  the  court, 
those  in  whose  care  he  is  placed  should  be  informed,  if  not  in- 
structed, how  he  should  be  handled  or  assisted  so  as  to  make  him 


248849 


38 

self-supporting  and  non-criminal.  Most  mental  defectives  can  as 
easily  be  made  non-criminal  as  criminal. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  discuss  in  this  report  how  the  criminal  code 
might  be  changed  so  that  it  would  be  considered  a  part  of  the 
application  of  the  work  of  the  jail  system  to  provide  efficient 
medical  service;  the  application  of  the  conclusions  of  an  indus- 
trial psychologist  to  vocational  placing  or  training  with  the  view 
of  determining  the  vocations  inmates  are  most  adapted  to,  as 
well  as  the  exercise  of  reformatory  influence,  which  is  spoken  of  by 
other  members  of  the  committee,  which  means  public  welfare  and 
social  service  work  that  has  already  been  taken  up  by  commissions 
and  bureaus  under  the  direction  of  municipal  or  state  govern- 
ment in  public  institutions. 

If  the  signs  of  the  times  are  read  correctly,  all  this  will  be  done 
in  the  near  future ;  in  fact,  is  being  done  now  in  some  form  in  some 
localities,  especially  in  large  cities. 

The  policy  of  having  jails,  lockups,  or  police  stations  under 
city,  county,  or  state  control  might  and  probably  should  be  con- 
sidered alone  and  separate  from  the  policy  above  outlined. 

The  conditions  in  rural  districts,  where  there  are  lockups  in 
villages,  and  the  county  jail  the  only  intermediate  place  between 
it  and  the  state  penitentiary,  constitute  a  situation  somewhat  dif- 
ferent from  the  large  cities,  where  the  police  stations  take  the 
place  of  lockups.  But  in  both  the  rural  districts  and  the  cities 
the  same  policy  should  and  can  be  adopted,  providing  for  scientific 
care  and  treatment  of  those  coming  under  the  ban  of  the  law. 

The  fact  is  now  being  recognized  that  only  a  comparatively 
small  percentage  of  offenders  are  wilfully  following  a  criminal 
career,  that  a  large  percentage  will,  when  studied,  reveal  an  under- 
lying cause  for  their  apparent  criminal  tendencies,  over  which  it 
will  be  found  they  have  had  but  little,  if  any,  control.  This  cause 
can  be  determined  and  often  removed  while  they  are  in  houses  of 
detention  awaiting  the  action  of  the  law,  and  no  great  amount  of 
legislation  or  added  expense  will  be  necessary  to  provide  the  facil- 
ities to  clo  this,  either  in  rural  districts  or  the  cities. 

Thereff)rc"  the  following  may  be  offered  as  the  program  of  a 
psychological  research  laboratory  in  a  suggested  centralized  sys- 
tem for  unconvicted  offenders. 


39 

The  work  naturally  divides  itself  into  two  divisions:  First — 
Diagnosis.    Second — Treatment. 

Diagnosis. — Under  this  heading  are  included  the  social,  the 
physical,  and  mental  examinations.  In  the  mental  examination 
modern  scientific  apparatus  would  be  used,  such  as  the  Binet 
scale,  form  boards,  construction  puzzles,  the  dynamometer,  ergo- 
graph,  algometer,  among  other  experimental  material,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  determining  a  subject's  capacity  and  development  in  sen- 
sation, perception,  attention,  concentration,  association,  memory, 
imagination,  discrimination,  connotation,  affection,  reasoning, 
suggestibility,  besides  determining  the  ideational  type,  the  reac- 
tion type,  and  so  on.  Besides  what  has  already  been  enumerated, 
the  mental  age,  special  abilities,  predilections,  likes  and  dislikes, 
and  moral  development  will  be  determined.  Here,  also,  will  be 
estimated  the  psycho-physical  power  of  the  individual,  his  general 
strength  and  that  of  specific  body  parts;  his  fatigue  index,  his 
power  of  endurance,  his  daily  work-curve,  his  efficiency  type. 

Under  the  caption  "Physical"  will  be  included  an  examination 
of  all  organs,  internal  and  external,  both  as  to  development  and 
function.  For  this  latter  purpose  biochemical  analyses  will  be 
made  to  determine  any  disorders  of  metabolism,  any  abnormali- 
ties in  body  secretions  and  excretion.  A  systematic  diagnosis  will 
be  made  of  the  condition  of  the  eyes,  ears,  heart,  lungs,  kidneys, 
liver,  etc.  The  reflexes  will  be  examined  and  the  blood  pressure 
noted. 

The  social  examination  will  include  the  subject's  personal  his- 
tory; his  education,  employments,  arrests,  difficulties,  diseases, 
habits,  ideals;  his  family  history,  his  heredity,  and  the  condition 
of  the  environment  in  which  he  at  present  finds  himself. 

Treatment. — On  the  basis  of  this  diagnosis  a  plan  for  individual 
treatment  could  be  much  more  accurately  and  much  more  satis- 
factorily stated.  The  treatment  will  cover  five  different  fields: 
industrial,  physical,  educational,  recreational,  and  environmental. 

Under  the  Industrial  will  be  included  vocational  guidance  and 
vocational  training.  An  attempt  will  be  made  to  adjust  more 
closely  worker  and  industry,  for  the  purpose  of  preventing,  as  far 
as  possible,  any  human  or  economic  waste. 

Under  Physical  Treatment  will  be  included  the  removal  of  all 
physical  factors  tending  to  make  the  individual  less  fit,  and  the 
development  of  those  powers  tending  to  make  him  more  of  an 


40 

economic  asset.  Hygiene  of  body  and  of  mind  will  be  the  goal 
toward  which  all  efforts  will  be  aimed. 

The  Educational  Treatment  will  include  specific  trade  training 
as  well  as  the  assimilation  of  that  necessary  knowledge  and  infor- 
mation which  go  to  make  an  American  citizen  more  and  more 
efficient. 

The  Recreational  and  Environmental  Treatment  will  be  more 
in  the  hands  of  social  workers  and  public  welfare  agents  after  the 
inmate  leaves  this  centralized  institution. 

Throughout  all  this  work  a  close  cooperation  will  be  main- 
tained between  this  laboratory  and  all  social  agencies. 

One  of  the  most  important  features  of  this  program  will  be  an 
efficient  "follow-up"  system,  to  check  up  the  hypotheses  and 
conclusions  of  the  laboratory  psychologists  and  physicians  by  an 
actual  observation  of  the  released  cases. 


VI 

ABSTRACT  OF  THE  REPORT  OF  COMMITTEE  ON 
JAILS,  LOCKUPS  AND  POLICE  STATIONS 

By  William  T.  Cross 

Of  Chicago,  Chairman,  American  Prison  Association,  1915 

The  following  table  is  derived  from  statistics  given  in  Bulletin 
121  of  the  United  States  Census: 


In  Institutions 
January  i,  1910 

Committed  during 
1910 

' 

Number 

Per  cent 

Number 

Per  cent 

State    prisons,    penitentiaries    and 

reformatories 
County  jails,  workhouses  and  chain 

gangs 
Municipal  jails  and  workhouses 
Institutions  for  juvenile  delinquents 

67,871 

35,008 

8,619 

24,974 

49-7 

25-7 

6.3 

18.3 

27,732 

275,658 

176,397 

14,147 

5.6 

55-8 

35-7 

2.9 

Total 

136,472 

1 00.0 

493.934 

1 00.0 

Editor's  Note:  The  foregoing  table  does  not  include  prisoners  awaiting 
trial,  witnesses,  insane  persons,  or  children. 


41 

Statistics,  such  as  the  Federal  census  has  been  able  to  gather, 
including  the  general  classification  of  offenses,  show  fairly  well  the 
magnitude  of  crime,  but  only  in  a  limited  way  can  they  be  ex- 
pected to  portray  the  quality  of  such  problems  as  those  under  the 
consideration  of  the  committee.  For  the  latter  purpose  a  much 
safer  guide  is  the  experience  of  any  state  in  which  the  subject  has 
had  considerable  attention.  This  is  natural,  for  the  treatment  of 
crime  is  chiefly  a  state  function. 

But  the  essential  character  of  the  problem  appears  only  with  a 
knowledge  of  the  individual  cases  involved. 

Our  chief  regret  in  the  preparation  of  this  report  is  that  there 
is  not  sufficient  space  for  copious  illustration  with  case  descrip- 
tions, as  it  is  our  conviction  that  all  reforms  in  this  field  must  be 
based  on  a  more  systematic  and  intelligent  effort  to  understand 
the  peculiar  condition  and  needs  of  the  individual  delinquent. 

The  local  jail  has  long  represented  the  entire  process  of  treat- 
ment of  the  misdemeanant.  Incidental  to  the  main  thesis  of  this 
paper,  however,  it  is  intended  to  demonstrate  that  (i)  the  old- 
fashioned  jail  is  unsuccessful  as  a  means  of  reformation  of  the 
petty  criminal,  and  (2)  the  making  over  of  this  institution  is  only 
part  of  a  larger  scheme  of  treatment  whereby  we  may  hope  to 
reduce  the  burden  of  crime.  It  would  be  manifestly  illogical  at 
this  stage,  when  the  more  comprehensive  plan  has  not  been 
brought  home  with  sufficient  emphasis  to  the  consciousness  of 
those  who  are  dealing  with  the  problem,  to  devote  our  attention 
exclusively  to  the  administration  of  jails,  narrowly  conceived  as  a 
problem  of  prison  science.  The  functions  and  duties  of  jailers 
should,  to  be  sure,  be  limited  sufficiently  for  purposes  of  practical 
administration.  The  natural  limitations  of  official  action  in  any 
department  of  government  must  not  be  lost  sight  of.  But  if  the 
historic  jail  is  in  a  state  of  evolution,  we  can  neither  give  much 
encouragement  to  the  well-intentioned  jailer  who  has  long  wanted 
to  see  better  results  from  his  efforts,  nor  hope  to  halt  the  process 
of  training  criminals  for  the  future  unless  there  is  a  better  under- 
standing of  the  entire  new  system  toward  which  we  are  tending. 

To  demonstrate  and  record  the  important  change  that  is  be- 
lieved to  be  taking  place  in  the  aspect  of  the  local  jail  question  is 
the  main  object  of  this  report.  From  the  literature  of  the  subject, 
from  conversation  and  correspondence  with  representative  offi- 


42 

cials  concerned  with  jail  administration,  and  from  personal  expe- 
rience and  observation,  we  are  convinced  that  the  principles  and 
practical  issues  involved  in  handling  this  subject  twenty-five  years 
ago  and  now  are  widely  different.  Under  two  such  different 
regimes  an  identical  procedure  should  not  be  expected.  Many 
authorities  dealing  with  the  jail  question  today  are  confessedly 
discouraged.  Yet  why  should  they  be  if  there  is  a  sign  of  hope  on 
the  horizon?  It  would  be  a  matter  of  chagrin  to  us  to  discover 
that  we  are  postponing  the  ideal  day  by  too  long  consorting  with 
outworn  principles,  that  we  are  lingering  in  sight  of  the  "  promised 
land." 

The  literature  of  this  local  jail  question  holds  in  store  for  the 
student  of  social  reform  a  disappointing  experience.  The  matter 
has  not  been  under  discussion  so  long  without  our  learning  many 
facts  and  principles.  Nevertheless,  President  Byers  truly  summed 
up  the  situation  in  his  address  before  this  Association  in  1898, 
when  he  said:  "  If  we  are  to  judge  from  what  has  been  said  and 
written  in  the  past  ten  or  twenty  years  regarding  the  county  jails 
of  our  country,  we  are  today  little,  if  any,  in  advance  of  our 
model  of  more  than  a  century  ago."  Mr.  Byers  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  what  progress  has  been  made  ha^  been  along  mate- 
rial lines.  The  late  Dr.  Fred.  H.  Wines,  in  his  masterful  address  at 
the  Boston  meeting  of  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and 
Correction  on  "The  Abolition  of  the  County  Jail,"  said:  "Of  all 
the  reforms  included  under  the  general  title  of  prison  reform  in 
the  United  States,  none  is  so  urgent  as  the  overthrow  of  our  exist- 
ing system  of  dealing  with  misdemeanants.  Three-fourths  of 
those  in  custody  are  in  fact  held  in  institutions,  the  practical  effect 
of  which  is  to  train  an  unascertained  percentage  of  their  inmates 
for  the  penitentiary."  But,  notwithstanding  such  scathing  ar- 
raignments, this  subject  has  not  had  the  continuing  intelligent 
attention  which  it  deserves.  Perhaps  a  partial  explanation  can  be 
found  in  the  fact,  for  example,  that  in  Dr.  Wines'  splendid  review 
in  1890  of  "Twenty  Years'  Growth  of  the  American  Prison  Sys- 
tem," the  jail  question  is  scarcely  more  than  mentioned.  Only 
recently  have  authorities  in  a  few  states  begun  to  demonstrate 
that  the  work  of  jails  is  part  of  a  complete  system  by  which  the 
state  undertakes  to  combat  crime.  A  committee  on  this  subject 
in  tliis  Associatifjn  has  been  continuous  only  since  191 1,  and  it  is 
still  (ailed  "spcci.'il." 


43 

The  appeal  of  Dr.  Hastings  H.  Hart  at  the  1907  meeting  may 
well  be  recalled:  "I  candidly  believe  that  we  have  reached  a 
point  in  the  development  of  prison  reform  when  the  National 
Prison  Association  ought  to  address  itself  systematically  and 
faithfully,  for  a  series  of  years,  to  the  reformation  of  the  county 
jail  system." 

In  contrast  with  the  standstill  we  have  reached  with  the  jail 
question,  recall  the  progress  we  have  made  in  the  solution  of  other 
social  problems.  The  sister  institution  of  the  jail,  the  county 
almshouse,  has  been,  in  many  states,  fairly  well  reclaimed  from 
its  early  deplorable  catch-all  character.  Children  have  been  re- 
moved by  legal  prohibition,  the  insane  have  been  taken  for  spe- 
cialized care  to  state  institutions,  the  number  of  feeble-minded  in 
almshouses,  as  shown  by  the  last  two  census  reports,  was  reduced 
in  six  years  by  almost  50  per  cent.  Within  a  very  few  years  we 
have  made  great  headway  in  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  com- 
munity recreation.  Remarkable  improvements  have  been  made 
in  the  last  two  decades  in  the  administration  of  voluntary  charity. 
Organized  effort  has,  within  ten  years,  been  amazingly  effective 
in  the  reduction  of  the  child  labor  evil.  While  in  some  instances 
needed  reforms  have  come  about  too  slowly,  perhaps  no  other 
problem  can  be  named  for  which  methods  of  partial  solution  have 
been  so  long  and  so  well  known,  with  which  we  have  made  so 
little  progress  as  in  the  treatment  of  minor  offenders. 

It  would  be  an  unfair  representation  of  developments  in  this 
field  to  make  a  clear  distinction  between  ideals  of  the  present  and 
of  the  past.  Nevertheless,  a  somewhat  arbitrary  division  is  nec- 
essary in  order  properly  to  portray  the  trend  of  present-day 
thought  and  action.  Thus,  in  a  general  way,  it  may  be  said  that, 
for  the  most  part,  the  following  principles  and  ideals  have  been 
developed  and  emphasized  in  respect  to  local  jails  up  to  the  last 
five  or  ten  years: 


I.  Security 
This  was  the  primary  principle  in  the  development  of  jails  in 
the  early  days.     It  explains  the  massive,  medieval  structures 
everywhere  to  be  seen,  so  impossible  to  administer  according  to 
modern  standards,  and  so  difficult  to  modify. 


44 


2.  Cleanliness 
This  has  been  an  important  consideration  since  the  days  of 
jail  fever.     It  is  to  be  secured  chiefly  through  the  adoption  of 
sanitary  devices  and  through  persevering  administration. 

3.  Food 

While  the  opportunity  of  improvement  of  the  criminal  through 
the  adoption  of  better  dietary  standards  has  received  scarcely  any 
attention,  a  comparatively  negative  aspect  of  the  food  question — 
the  method  of  furnishing  meals  to  prisoners — has  made  it  one  of 
the  chief  issues  in  jail  reform.  A  member  of  this  committee 
writes:  "The  per  diem  system  of  dieting  is  the  curse  of  the  jail." 
In  a  few  states,  after  hard  struggles,  laws  have  been  passed  re- 
quiring that  food  be  furnished  prisoners  on  the  basis  of  competi- 
tive bids. 

4.  Moral  Supervision 

From  the  earliest  days  this  has  consisted  mainly  of  the  conduct 
of  religious  exercises  by  persons  who  have  little  contact  with  or 
conception  of  the  jail  problem,  frequently  under  the  eyes  of  an 
indulgent  but  skeptical  jailer.  An  effective  scheme  of  practical 
moral  supervision  has  yet  to  be  invented. 

5.  Classification  of  Prisoners 
This  principle,  first  emphasized  for  the  sake  of  the  most  ele- 
mentary requirements  of  decency,  has  had  great  attention  in  the 
last  twenty  years.  It  is  possibly  the  most  fruitful  one  of  the  entire 
list,  for,  logically  carried  out,  it  will  mean  the  complete  individ- 
ualization of  treatment  on  the  basis  of  the  offender's  mental 
make-up  and  social  condition.  But  classification  is  shamefully 
neglected  in  a  great  majority  of  jails.  An  indication  of  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  principle  is  to  be  seen  in  the  effects  of  establishing 
the  star-class  system  (for  first  offenders)  in  the  English  local 
prisons.  It  is  reported  that  during  the  first  twelve  years  of  its 
operation  only  9.1  per  cent,  males  and  14.2  per  cent,  females, 
first  offenders,  were  recommitted. 

6.  AnoLiTioN  OF  the  Fee  System 
It  has  been  known  for  many  years  that  the  political  connections 
of  sheriffs  are  a  constant  obstacle  to  reform  measures  and  that  the 


45 

evil  is  intensified  by  the  fact  that  the  sheriff's  office  is  generally 
supported  on  the  basis  of  fees.  The  movement,  fast  gaining 
strength,  for  putting  the  sheriff's  office  on  a  salary  basis,  is  an 
important  part  of  the  program  of  jail  reform.  With  this  ideal  is 
usually  combined  that  of  better  selection  of  and  more  permanent 
tenure  for  jailers. 

7.  State  Inspection 
The  period  under  review  includes  the  establishment  of  the 
principle  of  inspection  of  local  jails  under  state  authority,  with 
power  to  enforce  the  abandonment  of  jails  below  a  certain  stan- 
dard. New  York,  Indiana,  and  Alabama  afford  good  examples  in 
this  respect.     .     .     . 

8.  Standardized  Jail  Rules 
In  some  states  it  has  been  attempted  to  supersede  prisoners' 
moot-court  rules  and  the  personal  inclinations  of  sheriffs  in  the 
management  of  jails  with   standardized   rules  promulgated  by 
state  authority.     .     .     . 

9.  Standardized  Specifications  for  Construction  and 

Repairs 
Such  standard  specifications  have  been  adopted  in  a  few  states 
where  supervision  is  furthest  advanced,  in  connection  with  the 
approval  of  plans  made  by  local  authorities. 

The  foregoing  are  principles  that  have  been  evolved  in  handling 
the  jail  question,  rather  than  ideals.  Until  quite  recently  we 
have  had  no  conscious  policy  in  the  treatment  of  the  misdemean- 
ant. .  .  .  Scarcely  any  of  those  services  which  the  state  ought 
to  render  in  the  effort  to  turn  the  novice  in  crime  into  paths  of 
righteousness  does  the  old-time  jail  system  perform,  and  many 
conditions  directly  subversive  of  character  are  perpetuated.  To 
quote  Dr.  Wines:  ".  .  .  the  best  jail  that  was  ever  built,  al- 
though the  physical  treatment  accorded  to  its  unfortunate  in- 
mates may  be  perfectly  humane  and  just,  fails  to  subserve  any  of 
the  ends  of  a  prison  except  that  of  confinement." 

In  the  last  decade  there  have  come  into  prominence,  under 
widely  varied  leadership,  a  series  of  measures  and  principles  which 
are  completely  changing  the  nature  of  this  issue.     .     .     .    For  the 


46 

most  part  they  represent  ideals  of  a  new  period.    The  newer  sys- 
tem includes: 

/.  Methods  Involving  a  Change  in  the  Plan  of  Incarceration. — 
(a)  State  penal  farms.  .  .  .  The  plan  has  developed  out  of 
successful  experiments  in  outdoor  work  for  convicts,  and  in  the 
removal  of  municipal  houses  of  correction  to  the  country.  .  .  . 
{h)  Payments  to  prisoners  in  the  nature  of  wages.  .  .  .  Pay- 
ments to  convicts  are  optional  with  prison  authorities  in  a  number 
of  states,  and  the  way  seems  clear  for  the  adoption  of  the  prin- 
ciples with  respect  to  the  misdemeanant  class.  .  .  .  (c)  Re- 
vision of  sentences.  The  principle  of  systematic  revision  of  sen- 
tences on  the  basis  of  more  complete  knowledge  of  the  criminal 
and  his  action  subsequent  to  his  conviction  has  been  established 
through  the  success  of  the  indeterminate  sentence  acts.  .  .  . 
(e)  Educational  work  and  mental  examination.  .  .  .  Both 
school  work  and  classification  within  the  institution  should  be 
based  on  thorough  mental  examination  of  the  prisoner.     .     .     , 

II.  Methods  Involving  Supervision  Under  Conditional  Libera- 
tion.— (a)  Adult  probation  .  .  .  ;  {b)  Parole  .  .  .  ;  (c) 
Out-work  for  local  prisoners.  ,  .  .  (There  is  an  earlier  in- 
stance of  the  adoption  of  the  same  principle  without  legal  authori- 
zation at  Montpelier,  Vermont.)  .  .  .  {d)  Employment  of 
prisoners  without  guard,  an  aspect  of  the  so-called  honor  system 
.  .  . ;  (e)  Restitution  .  .  .  ;  (/)  Change  in  system  for  com- 
mitment for  fines;     .     .     . 

III.  Rehabilitation  of  the  Offender. — (a)  Special  treatment  for 
special  classes.  ...  In  most  communities  it  is  still  common 
to  find  the  jail  the  chief  means  of  handling  inebriates,  vagrants, 
cases  of  wife  desertion  and  non-support,  prostitutes,  and  even  the 
feeble-minded.  {b)  Cooperation  with  community  agencies; 
.  .  .  (c)  Case  work.  One  of  the  greatest  contributions  made  to 
the  science  of  social  betterment  is  the  method  of  case  work  devel- 
oped in  the  charity  organization  societies  .  .  .  whether  as 
leader  or  cooperator,  the  penal  institution  ought  definitely  to  take 
part  in  this  process. 

IV.  Improvement  in  the  Process  Preliminary  to  Conviction. — 
(a)  Psychopathic  study.  Recent  studies  of  the  feeble-minded 
delinquent,  the  establishment  of  bureaus  of  psychopathic  re- 
search in  connection  with  courts  and  penal  institutions,  with 
such  results  as  the  production  of  Ur.  William  Healy's  epoch- 


47 

making  work,  The  Individual  Delinquent,  may  be  regarded  as 
heralds  of  the  ultimate  establishment  of  psychopathic  study  as  a 
basis  of  judgment  and  treatment  of  criminals,  {b)  Reforms  in 
legal  procedure  and  police  administration  ...  as  exemplified 
partially  in  the  Chicago  Municipal  Court.     .     .     . 

v.  Supervision. — (a)  State  supervision  and  control.  .  .  . 
A  permanent  policy  of  this  kind  would  facilitate  in  many  ways 
the  adoption  and  operation  of  principles  enumerated  in  this  re- 
port, would  establish  confidence  and  respect  on  the  part  of  the 
people  in  the  efTectiveness  of  penal  administration  and  increase 
the  respect  of  would-be  criminals  for  the  law,  and  probably  would 
result  in  huge  financial  saving,  {h)  Statistics.  The  meagerness 
and  useless  quality  of  statistics  of  misdemeanants  in  America 
is  notorious. 

The  system  which  has  been  suggested  should  be  taken  as  a 
whole,  for  there  is  not  time  to  describe  adequately  all  the  ways  in 
which  our  treatment  of  the  petty  ofTender  is  being  made  over. 
The  principle  of  punishment  is  not  eliminated  from  the  new  sys- 
tem, but  rather  is  it  made  more  effective.  .  .  .  The  local 
jail  is  left  virtually  a  place  of  detention  only,  and  that  elusive 
ideal  of  our  penology,  separate  confinement  for  the  unconvicted 
prisoner,  is  brought  a  step  nearer. 

It  may  be  asked.  Is  not  the  new  system  more  attractive  to  the 
petty  criminal?  To  this  the  reply  may  be  given  that  efifective 
measures — relentless  follow-up  work — is  most  objectionable  to 
him.  The  present  haphazard  arrangement"  comes  much  nearer 
being  his  ideal. 

The  secretary  of  the  Pennsylvania  Prison  Society  calculates 
that  the  present  net  cost  of  about  $1,000,000  yearly  for  the  main- 
tenance of  county  jails  in  that  state  could  be  reduced  one-half 
through  the  establishment  of  state  farms.     .     .     . 

Many  questions  of  policy  relating  to  local  jails  are  yet  to  be 
worked  out;  differences  in  the  requirements  of  the  various  types 
of  institutions  included  in  the  title  of  this  committee,  the  estab- 
lishment of  standards  of  administration  for  lockups  and  police 
stations,  perhaps  an  adjustment  of  the  state  farm  idea  to  the  re- 
quirements of  large  urban  populations,  and  so  forth.     .     .     . 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  AT  LOS  ANGELES 


UBBLARY 


^ 


3  1158  00228  3975 


r 


JH"^^^^^^^^^^^^ 


AA  000  909  64 


7  0 


